One Day A Week
by NEIWIS
Summary: Reyna and Nico always do their best to spend one day a week together. Everyone thought it would be good for both of them. No one realized the trouble that the two demigods would get into. Between beating up Girl Scouts, "accidentally" maiming bullies during capture the flag, and saving children from a Shtriga, it's a surprise the two have time for movie marathons.
1. Albania Part One

**This story will be a series of ministories exploring the friendship of Reyna and Nico and the trouble they can get in.**

 **Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

Reyna had no clue how she was going to explain this. Nico looked like he was in the same boat. They both sat in silence staring at the jail cell they had been put in. How had everything gone so wrong?

"So," Nico began. "How are we going to get out of this?"

"We ask to make a call," Reyna answered. She stared ahead at the gray wall. "I only know two numbers besides yours."

"Who do the numbers belong to?" Nico questioned. He was sitting on the single bed that the cell had. The entire building itself was old and seemed like it was falling apart.

"Annabeth and my sister," Reyna replied.

"Great," Nico muttered. He rubbed his face. Reyna stood and walked towards the cell bars. She waited there silently. The guard glanced up at her.

"How did you kids get these weapons anyway?" the guard wondered. He was examining Reyna's sword and daggers.

"I just want my phone call," Reyna said. The guard stood and walked towards her. He had a look of disgust on his face.

"You two sicken me," the guard began. He crossed his arms. "We get some freaks in here, but what you two did is over the line."

Reyna bit her tongue. She didn't want to be tasered. Again. The first time had been because the cops surprised her. She had accidentally flipped one over her shoulder. The other didn't take too kindly to that.

The guard opened the cell and grabbed Reyna roughly. He really didn't like her. Reyna gritted her teeth as she was dragged to the phone. The guard took his time to place quarters into the payphone. Why didn't they have regular phones?

Reyna silently dialed and waited. It took her sister forever to answer. Hylla finally picked up the phone and spoke in an angry tone, "I really don't want your product. Stop calling so late."

"Hylla, it's me," Reyna said quickly.

"What are you doing calling me so late?" Hylla asked. She sounded annoyed and tired. It was almost like she had just gotten out of bed. Of course, Reyna wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for her sister.

Reyna glanced around and whispered, "You remember how you told Nico and I there was a break in at one of your bases, and you wanted us to check it out?"

"What about it?" Hylla questioned.

"There was nothing," Reyna reported.

"So, you woke me up at two in the morning to tell me that there was nothing, and you risked using a cell phone. I'm going to hang up now," Hylla said

"Wait," Reyna said. "I need your help."

"With?" Hylla questioned.

"I'm kind of in jail," Reyna answered. Her sister was silent for a long time. Reyna thought the call had disconnected. Then, she heard laughing. "It's not funny."

"It's hilarious," Hylla corrected. "What are you in for? Possession of a deadly weapon? No, my guess is murder."

"Assault and battery," Reyna muttered.

"Who did you beat up?" Hylla wondered.

"It doesn't matter," Reyna promised.

"It does if you want me to come bail you out," Hylla said.

"I would rather spend my time in jail then," Reyna commented.

"Is it really that bad?" Hylla asked. "If it is, I really want to know now."

"Girl Scouts," Reyna muttered.

"I'm sorry," Hylla began. She was trying to keep from laughing. "I don't think I heard you correctly."

"I'm in jail for assault and battery of Girl Scouts," Reyna hissed. "If you tell anyone, I swear to Jupiter I will kick your ass."

"I'm telling everyone," Hylla promised laughing. She tried to talk but kept laughing. Reyna's foul mood became even worse. She didn't need to be made fun of.

"What jail are you in?" Hylla asked.

"Forget it," Reyna muttered. She slammed the phone onto the hook and slammed her head into the wall.

"Did she laugh at you?" Nico questioned. Reyna nodded and didn't move. "If you just told her why."

"No," Reyna hissed. She looked at Nico angrily. "No one is going to know why. We swore we would never speak of Albania."

"Is she coming?" Nico slowly asked.

"I hung up on her," Reyna replied. She looked at the guard. "Can I call someone else?"

"What happened at Albania," the guard wondered. He walked towards her and placed more coins into the payphone.

"Nothing," Reyna muttered. She silently dialed Annabeth's number. It only took a few moments for Annabeth to pick up.

"Hello?" Annabeth asked tiredly.

"It's Reyna. I need your help," Reyna muttered. She rubbed her forehead.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth questioned. She sounded worried. Reyna didn't reply for a few moments. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Reyna answered. "Hylla sent Nico and I to one of her bases to check out a disturbance. This base is near a forest. We found nothing there but stumbled into a camp of Girl Scouts."

"Are you pranking me?" Annabeth interrupted.

"What?" Reyna asked raising an eyebrow. "No. Will you please just listen? We found the Girl Scouts, and we may have attacked them."

So, I'm being pranked?" Annabeth wondered. Reyna suddenly punched a wall as hard as she could. She knew Annabeth had heard it

"Hey! What are you doing?" the guard demanded. He grabbed Reyna's arm. "Back in the cell. Your friend can finish the call."

Reyna really considered knocking the guard out and making a break for it. She would have if there was not cameras everywhere. The daughter of Bellona reluctantly walked back to the cell.

She laid on the bed and glared angrily. Her hand throbbed from where she had hit the wall. A knuckle or two was probably broken. The guard closed the cell door after Nico walked out. Reyna watched her best friend grab the phone.

"I know it sounds bad Annabeth. We were just suspicious because of something that happened in Albania," Nico explained.

"Don't you dare," Reyna warned standing up. She glared at the son of Hades.

"If you can get us out of here, I will explain everything," Nico promised. Oh, he was dead meat. Reyna was going to suffocate him with the pillow.

"Can you tell Sally we're sorry? Thank you," Nico said. He hung up and looked at the guard. "Can I have another cell."

"You're dead," Reyna warned Nico.

"Do you want to make it two counts of assault?" the guard questioned looking at Reyna.

"You should add a charge of manslaughter," Reyna said in a low voice. She glared at Nico.

"I'm sorry," Nico began. Reyna's glare intensified. Nico looked away.

Reyna laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She just needed to wait for Sally to bail her out. It was kind of funny. Sally had became like a mother to seven, Reyna, and Nico.

"How mad are you?" Nico wondered. Reyna ignored him. She would have to pay Sally back for whatever the bail would cost. They would also have to manipulate the mist to get the charges dropped.

Nico looked down as he was led back into the cell. He sat against it looking like a lost puppy. Good. Reyna stared at the ceiling emotionless.

Albania was not something she wanted to relive. Nico had forced that when he promised Annabeth that he would explain their situation. The son of Hades probably wouldn't survive the rest of the night. Reyna closed her eyes and took a breath. Maybe, she could get through the story of Albania without being laughed at, but she doubted it.

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 **I have this little, red notebook that I put all my ideas in. As I was planning for one story, I flipped to another page and wrote Albania equals Girl Scouts. Somehow, we ended up here. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter.**


	2. Albania Part Two

**Thank you for all of the follows, favorites, and reviews.**

* * *

 ** _Albania- six months ago_**

"Albania. This place is great!" Hedge called. Reyna jumped and looked at Hedge. She was examining the statue they had been tasked with transporting.

"Will you keep your voice down?" Reyna demanded. She looked around the forest. They were in a small clearing. She was hesitant to build a fire. There was no telling what was in the forest.

Nico shifted next to her. He had passed out as soon as they finished shadow traveling. Reyna whistled lowly. Her two dogs appeared from a bush.

"How about we do it like true survivors?" Hedge questioned. "We can catch a deer and eat it."

"I thought Fauns wanted to protect nature," Reyna said raising an eyebrow. She scratched Aurum under his chin.

"Satyr. Survival of the fittest kid," Hedge explained. "If they are not fast enough to get away from me, I'm going to eat them. So, are you good with a bow?"

"I'm good with any weapon," Reyna replied. She felt Nico's forehead and stood. "We should gather supplies for a fire."

"Make it big enough for the deer," Hedge ordered. He jumped as Argentum circled around him and sniffed him. "Kid, you should make sure your dog watches himself."

"He's getting to know you," Reyna said with a shrug. She looked at her dogs. "Protect Nico."

"Can I take one with me?" Hedge asked as the dogs sat by Nico. "They are hunting dogs, right?"

"No," Reyna answered. Hedge was going to be the death of her. "You should go hunt the deer down. I will scout around and find some firewood."

After Hedge nodded, Reyna walked away. She looked around the forest. There was no telling who or what was nearby. Her danger senses weren't going off. That was good.

Reyna glanced up and saw smoke in the sky. It was faint and not far from her location. A branch suddenly snapped behind her. The daughter of Bellona quickly turned and placed a hand to her sword.

"I'm so glad you could make it," a woman said. She grabbed Reyna's hand and quickly shook it. Reyna just stared at her for a few moments. "We've been waiting hours for you."

"For?" Reyna slowly asked. The woman stared at her with bright, blue eyes. She was wearing a uniform that looked like it belonged to Girl Scouts.

"You're our guest speaker, of course. The girls are so excited to meet you," the woman explained. Her blonde hair was under a hat. Reyna just stared trying to process what was happening.

How did the woman speak English? Why was she in the middle of a forest in the middle of nowhere? Why in Jupiter's name did they need a guest speaker?

"I think you have the wrong person," Reyna began. The woman dragged her towards a clearing. Reyna could hear singing. She was so screwed.

As Reyna stepped into the clearing, she looked around. There was about twenty girls scattered around a campfire that had been put out. They all wore the uniform of a Girl Scout.

"Our guest speaker is here!" the woman announced. All of the Girl Scouts looked up and shouted a greeting. None of them gave off a monster vibe. "Will you introduce yourself?"

"I'm Reyna," the praetor answered after a moment. She had no clue how to get out of her situation. It seemed best to play along until she thought of something.

Reyna took a moment to examine the uniform that the Girl Scouts had. It was an ugly tan that she didn't recognize. One of them had a green sash covered in badges. The others seemed to look up to her.

"What advice do you have for building fires?" the woman questioned. "Oh, a demonstration would be lovely as well."

"Uh, don't fall into it," Reyna answered after a moment. She grabbed two sticks and knelt next to the fire. After a few moments, she rubbed the two sticks together trying to make a fire.

"Why don't you just use a lighter or matches?" one of the Girl Scouts asked. Reyna looked up in disgust.

"You are going to take the easy way out?" Reyna demanded as she stood. "This is an essential survival skill. There will be a day when your match does not light, or you do not have fuel in your lighter. Then, what are you going to do?"

The Girl Scouts fell silent. Reyna silently started the fire. These girls would never had made it as legionaries. She stood and looked around for a way out.

A branch snapped. Reyna turned and saw Hedge stumble into the clearing. The faun took one look around and raised his club. Before Reyna could stop him, Hedge hit the woman over the head.

The clearing fell dead silent. The Girl Scouts all turned towards Hedge. The faun spoke, "I have a club for every one of you!"

"Hedge, no," Reyna snapped. She stepped forward only for half of the Girl Scouts to turn towards her.

"You are working with him?" one demanded.

"This is a misunderstanding," Reyna began. The Girl Scouts seemed unconvinced. They walked towards her. Reyna gritted her teeth and unsheathed her sword. "Back up!"

The Girl Scout with the sash full of badges lunged at her. Reyna instinctively swung her sword. It barely scratched the girl's arm and left behind a small amount of blood.

"Get her!" a Girl Scout yelled. Reyna swung her sword at another. It passed right through the girl. Before Reyna could react, three of the Girl Scouts tackled her.

Reyna heard Hedge yelling and the sounds of fighting. She threw the Girl Scouts off of her. The praetor jumped to her feet.

"I don't want to fight you," Reyna began. When she opened her mouth to say more, a Girl Scout flipped her over their shoulder. Reyna tried to get to her feet. Three Girl Scouts sat on her chest. One tied her hands together.

"Hedge is just jumpy. We can talk this over," Reyna began. She tried to struggle as the Girl Scouts used a piece of rope to gag her. Five of them dragged her over to a tree.

Reyna struggled to get away from them. It was useless as one freakishly strong one pulled her up and tied her to the tree. Reyna did not get paid enough for this crap.

"I knew all of you Girl Scouts were evil!" Hedge yelled. He was completely tied up and rolling around on the ground. "Your cookies are just there to get us addicted. It's like a drug. You are miniature Amazons."

Reyna glared. The Amazons were not evil. They may want world domination, but that wasn't bad. The Romans had done it, and the world was a better place for it.

Reyna slammed her head into the tree. She did it again and again. This sucked. Girl Scouts had taken her out. If anyone found out, they wouldn't let her live it down.

"Untie me!" Hedge ordered. "I will take all of you out."

"I told you that Albania would bring us delicious opportunities," one of the Girl Scouts said. She looked directly at Reyna and licked her lips. That was not okay.

Reyna looked around and saw Nico staring at them. He was hiding in the shadows. Reyna gave him a warning look. She looked at the Girl Scouts. There was eighteen of them.

For a moment, Reyna wondered where the two of them had went. Her question was answered as Nico suddenly turned around. He took a small step back.

"Hello mister," a Girl Scout greeted. Nico looked around as the rest of the Girl Scouts surrounded him. "Would you like to buy some cookies?"

"You two need to let my companions go," Nico snapped.

"Get him," the Girl Scout with the badges ordered. Nico had no time to react as he was jumped by five Girl Scouts. Reyna vaguely wondered if she had looked that pathetic.

The Girl Scouts carried Nico towards the tree next to her. The son of Hades was promptly tied up. His legs and arms were secured to the tree. Reyna only had rope tied around her chest, but it kept her from being able to move her arms.

"What's going on here?" Nico demanded. He looked tired and confused. His face was pale.

"These little girls tried to take Reyna out," Hedge explained. Reyna glared at him and tried struggling in her restraints. She wanted to speak but couldn't

"You attacked our scout master!" one of the Girl Scouts yelled.

"I'll take you all out as well," Hedge snapped. He kept rolling around on the ground.

"Really?" one questioned. "We took you three down easily."

"I will take you on little girl," Hedge promised.

"Can we all just calm down?" Nico asked. "How do you know English?"

"We're American, you idiot," one of the Girl Scouts answered.

"Then, you understand the all American butt kicking that I am about to lay down on you!" Hedge yelled. Reyna glared at the sky. She vaguely wondered how many times she could bash her head into the tree before she passed out.

"Girls," the Girl Scout with the sash began. "You should go find their camp. We will watch them."

"We will Marcy," one of the smallest Girl Scouts promised. Marcy and three other Girl Scouts stayed, and the rest walked away. Marcy looked at Reyna and smiled. The daughter of Bellona glared angrily.

"Romans are so chewy with all of their muscles," Marcy commented. She walked towards Reyna and grabbed her chin. "We might let you soften a little."

Reyna wanted to curse her luck. Today was not going well at all. They were behind schedule, and they had managed to find cannibalistic Girl Scouts. It did explain why she was able to cut one.

"You're cannibals?" Hedge demanded.

"Laistrygonians," Marcy replied. She grabbed Reyna's sword and flipped it in a javelin. The point was pressed against Reyna's neck

"You don't look like them," Nico commented.

"I'll still kick your butts!" Hedge called. Reyna shot him a sharp look. She really didn't feel like getting her throat slit because a Faun couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"The mist is heavy in this area," one snapped. She bared her yellow teeth. "Our master sent us to strip your bones of flesh."

"I like my flesh on the bone," Nico muttered. He looked at Reyna. His face said that he didn't have the strength to raise the dead.

Reyna grimaced. She was left on her own to fight. There was Hedge though. They were so screwed.

"If you want my flesh and blood, you are going to have to fight me for it!" Hedge yelled.

"Shut up you Faun," Marcy snapped as she turned towards Hedge. Reyna kicked out at Marcy's elbow. Marcy's arm flew up causing the javelin to hit one of the Girl Scout's in the chest. The Girl Scout disintegrated into monster dust.

"You idiot Roman!" Marcy snapped. She adjusted her grip on the javelin and turned towards Reyna. The praetor made a small noise of pain as she was stabbed in the hip. "If you do anything like that again, your friend of death will be next."

"Leave her alone," Nico snapped. Marcy tore the javelin out of Reyna's hip. She threw it at Nico. It hit his shoulder. The son of Hades cried out and gritted his teeth.

"You are going to fight them when they are tied up? Untie me, and I will take you out!" Hedge yelled.

"You keep saying that but nothing happens. I'm not scared," Marcy promised. She walked towards Nico and pulled the javelin out of his shoulder. "You don't have a lot of meat on your bones."

"Which should we eat first?" one of the Laistrygonians questioned. Or, was it a Girl Scout? Reyna shook her head and tried to focus. She shifted to get the pressure off of her injured hip.

"The Faun has the most meat," Marcy began. "He would be all furry though. The Roman has plenty of muscle. She will make a nice appetizer. The son of Hades is our dessert."

Reyna glared. Why did she have to be the appetizer? She really needed to think of a plan. Hedge was the one who spoke, "You are not touching these kids!"

"Shut up Faun," Marcy snapped.

"I am a Satyr!" Hedge yelled. He actually managed to sit up.

"You're a washed up protector. This is nothing you can do to stop us," Marcy taunted. She placed the tip of the javelin to Reyna's neck. "Goodbye Roman."

"Leave her alone!" Hedge yelled. He somehow managed to get to his feet and slam into Marcy. The other two Girl Scouts rushed towards Hedge.

Nico glanced at Reyna and whistled. The Girl Scouts looked up for a moment before dragging Hedge towards the fire. A growl cut through the air.

Aurum jumped into the clearing. He immediately went after one of the Girl Scouts and slammed into her. Reyna jumped as she felt something cold on her hands. It only took a few moments for Argentum to chew through the ropes.

Reyna scooped up her javelin. She stabbed the other Girl Scout in the back and pulled the javelin out. The daughter of Bellona turned and threw her javelin at Nico. It tore through the rope that held Nico.

Marcy backed up realizing she was outnumbered. The other Girl Scout had been taken out by Reyna's dogs. Aurum and Argentum circled around Marcy and did not let her run. Nico untied Hedge.

"You're dead meat Girl Scout," Hedge promised. He grabbed Reyna's javelin from the tree. "No one hurts these kids."

Reyna sat down against the tree. She placed a hand to her hip gritting her teeth. Nico sat by her placing a hand to his shoulder. He spoke, "We got taken out by Girl Scouts."

"It can't get worse than this," Reyna muttered. She could feel her face was red. This entire day sucked. Hedge made a loud noise as Marcy disintegrated.

"I can't believe you let a Girl Scout take you out," Hedge said. Reyna glared at Hedge silently. He poured nectar onto their wounds.

"You're the one who first attacked them," Reyna snapped. Her two dogs moved to her side and sat by her. They seemed to stare at Hedge.

"Are they going to eat me?" Hedge slowly asked.

"Let's just get back to the camp," Reyna muttered. She glanced up hearing footsteps. It was hard to keep from groaning as the mortal Girl Scouts walked back into the clearing.

"What happened?" one of the Girl Scouts demanded.

"We can fix this," Hedge promised. He pulled Reyna and Nico to their feet. Then, the Faun wrapped his arms around them. "We'll do anything to make it up to you."

"Will you put on a play?" the youngest asked.

"Hedge, we need to go," Reyna whispered angrily.

"Of course," Hedge said. "Reyna here will be the lovely princess. Nico can be the handsome prince."

Reyna closed her eyes. Her face was completely red. Hedge was dead meat. She was going to kill him.

* * *

 ** _New York- Current Day_**

Reyna finished her story refusing to talk about the play. There was a reason she was not an actress. Nico had been worse than her though. Annabeth, Percy, and Sally sat across from her and Nico. They were trying to keep their laughter in with varying degrees of success.

Annabeth's face was red from laughing. She spoke, "You two had to put on a play. Seriously?"

"Shut up," Reyna grumbled. She looked away. Her face was so red that she looked like a tomato.

"This was totally worth getting up at three in the morning for," Percy commented. He had an arm around Annabeth. The two looked like a happy couple. They wouldn't be too hard to kill when they were that close together.

Reyna gripped the cup of hot chocolate she had been given. She could tell it was about to break. The praetor finally stood and stalked outside.

Reyna leaned on a wall as she stared up at the sky. She hated having to talk about Albania. The reaction to it was the worse. As she heard footsteps, she spoke, "I'm not in the mood Nico."

"It's not Nico," Sally said. Reyna slowly looked at her. "Albania sounded bad."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore," Reyna grumbled. She crossed her arms.

"You don't have to," Sally promised. She handed Reyna the cup of hot chocolate. "I can give you plenty of embarrassing stories about Percy and Annabeth."

"Really?" Reyna questioned.

"Of course," Sally answered. She winked. "Don't tell them where you got it from though."

Reyna smirked. She took a small sip of the hot chocolate. Nico stepped outside and stood by her side.

"Sorry," Nico began.

"You are lucky that you're my brother," Reyna interrupted. She wrapped an arm around Nico's shoulders. He smiled and leaned on her. "If you ever tell anyone about Albania again, I will kill you."

"I won't," Nico promised. "Thanks for not killing me now."

"I'm still considering it," Reyna said. "Sally, do you mind if we sleep at your house?"

"That's fine," Sally replied. She smiled at them.

"How do you want to share the couch?" Nico asked.

"Share?" Reyna questioned. She looked at Nico and smirked. "You're the one who brought up the story of Albania. You get the ground."

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed.**

 **Next chapter: capture the flag**


	3. Capture The Flag

**Thank you for all of the follows, favorites, and reviews.**

 **I hope to have a new chapter out at least once a week. There will usually only be one part. Some will have two. I hope you enjoy the new chapter.**

* * *

"Who. Did This?" Nico questioned through gritted teeth. One hand gripped his sword. The other was gripping his boyfriend's hand. Will shot him a look. An ice pack was pressed to his left eye.

"I'm fine," Will promised. "Bryce just wanted to gain a reputation with his siblings."

Nico remained silent He adjusted the ice on his boyfriend's eye. Nico did not want to deal with this when he was already stressed out. The son of Hades finally spoke, "You can't just let him get away with this."

"You need to calm down," Will retorted. "Do you remember what Annabeth told you to do?"

"Forgive and forget," Nico muttered. He crossed his arms angrily. "I prefer to remember and resent."

"Don't," Will warned. He dropped the ice and stood. The son of Apollo ruffled Nico's hair. "Are you ready for capture the flag?"

"I'm nervous," Nico admitted. "I'm not sure what to do. Annabeth is a genius and has vowed to destroy me."

"You shouldn't have bragged about going to beat her," Will chided.

"I thought Reyna was going to be here," Nico protested. "How was I suppose to know that her sister would get hospitalized, and Reyna would have to rush to her aid."

"The one time you get cocky," Will said. He smirked. "We are so screwed for tonight."

"I know," Nico agreed. He stood and looked around the Apollo cabin. Everything was neat since cabin inspection would be the day after. The son of Hades nodded to his boyfriend and left.

As Nico stepped outside, he looked around. Campers were rushing around as they prepared for capture the flag. It really should have been called everyone decides to team up on Nico. The opposing team consisted of the Athena, Aphrodite, Poseidon, Ares, Zeus, and pretty much any other cabin that was skilled in combat.

Nico's secret weapon had been Reyna. When Reyna told her best friend that she would most likely not be there, that was when the son of Hades knew he was screwed. Everything depended on the daughter of Bellona.

"Nico!" Annabeth called. Nico turned to look at the daughter of Athena. She was grinning. "Ready for tonight?"

"I'm ready to beat you," Nico answered. Everyone knew that it would be the easiest game of capture the flag ever. Nico's only plan was to make everyone at least try when they did beat him.

"It's going to be interesting tonight," Annabeth commented. That was her way of saying I am going to sit in a lawn chair and drink a cup of tea while my team decimates you. The daughter of Athena fixed her ponytail. Her cap of invisibility was in her pocket.

"Very interesting," Nico agreed. "So, why did everyone decide to team up on me?"

"We thought Reyna would be here," Annabeth answered. "Jason told us how she decimated in the war games when she used to play. I couldn't take the chance."

"You all just wanted to team up on me," Nico muttered. "How did you convince Clarisse to join you?"

"We traded shower times," Annabeth replied. "You would be surprised by how that changes minds."

"Good luck tonight," Nico said.

"You're the one who needs it," Annabeth commented. Nico had to agree with her. He couldn't show it though.

"I'll see you later," Nico said after a moment.

"I'll see you when I have your flag," Annabeth bragged. She walked away. Nico crossed his arms and tried to think. No plan came to mind.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. Nico didn't have many activities, so he spent the day cleaning his cabin. The tornado known as Will had spent a few hours in Nico's cabin. The son of Apollo had an ungodly ability to make anything messy.

Before Nico knew it, he was walking towards the dinner pavilion. Nico always sat by himself. Hedge, when he was around, would sit with Nico. The Satyr had been busy with his son for the past month.

Nico's mind went into autopilot as food was passed out. He stood in line to scrap off a portion of his food into the fire. What was he going to do for capture the flag? Annabeth was overconfident. He was going to have to use that against her.

Outsmarting Annabeth didn't seem like it would work. Nico could try to trick her. His other options involved brute force. He could also just make a beeline for wherever the flag was.

Nico frowned as he sat back down at his table. His mind was so focused on strategy that he barely paid attention to what was happening around him. Someone sitting at the table caught his attention. Nico glanced up and smiled.

"Reyna," Nico greeted. His best friend winked and put a finger to her lips. She was wearing a jacket that was soaked from the rain outside. Her hood was up which cast a shadow over her face. "I thought you couldn't make it."

"I wasn't going to," Reyna began. She stole an apple off of Nico's plate and examined it. The praetor took a bite and didn't elaborate.

"You and Hylla had an argument," Nico guessed.

"Yeah," Reyna muttered. "Are we still on for capture the flag?"

"Of course," Nico replied. "Honestly, I was screwed without you."

"My main job is to pull your ass out of the fire," Reyna joked. She sounded distracted. The daughter of Bellona pushed her hood down. "Do you need help making a plan?"

"What happened with you and Hylla?" Nico wondered.

"Don't," Reyna replied sharply. She placed her apple on the table and pulled out a dagger. For a few moments, Nico thought she was going to gut him. "Who gave Will the black eye?"

"A son of Ares named Bryce," Nico answered. "He's new and wanted to prove himself. That was Will's explanation."

"What's yours?" Reyna questioned.

"Bryce is an idiot. I would go after him, but everyone tells me that I need to not hold grudges. I would also be the first suspect," Nico replied. It felt good to talk about it.

Nico looked up and caught Annabeth's eyes. The daughter of Athena seemed to notice Reyna. Something that looked like a curse left her mouth. Nico smirked.

"It's a good thing we have capture the flag," Reyna commented. She stabbed her dagger into the apple. "Destroying people is a great way to let out anger."

"What is your plan?" Nico asked.

"Two defenders can guard the flag. We'll have two Apollo kids to do that. The rest of the Apollo kids will be in the trees guarding popular paths. I say we have a few kids guard the boundary line near the creek. We will be unseen," Reyna explained.

"How?" Nico wondered. Reyna winked at him. She whispered a plan to him. Nico wanted to point out that Annabeth was watching them. The daughter of Athena was probably reading their lips.

As Reyna finished speaking, she scooped up her pieces of apple and stood. The daughter of Bellona walked towards Chiron and sat by him. They seemed to talk about something serious. Nico watched before finishing his food.

Reyna glanced back at Nico. She caught his eyes and nodded. Nico returned the nod. They were going to decimate in capture the flag. He guaranteed it.

* * *

Nico was screwed. He had drifted away from Reyna for one minute. Now, Nico was surrounded by Annabeth and Piper.

"Can Piper use charmspeak?" Nico wondered. His question caused the two girls to hesitate. Nico turned to run. He ran right into Percy as the son of Poseidon stepped out of the trees.

"Where's Reyna?" Percy asked. He uncapped his pen. It really was everyone team up on Nico day.

"I lost her," Nico admitted.

"You lost her?" Annabeth questioned.

"Yeah," Nico confirmed. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. The son of Hades had been looking for Annabeth's flag. Reyna slipped away when he wasn't looking. "I have no clue where she is."

"How guarded is our flag?" Percy wondered.

"It's guarded enough. Where is your flag Nico?" Annabeth demanded.

"I don't know," Nico admitted.

"How do you not know where your own flag is?" Piper questioned.

"Reyna decided to hide it," Nico explained.

"I should have knew that you wouldn't follow the plan that Reyna told you," Annabeth muttered. She looked like she was in focus mood. Nico just stood there awkwardly.

"Um, are you guys going to take me prisoner now?" Nico asked. Annabeth looked at Percy and nodded. Nico sighed and handed them his sword. He held his hands up. "Lead me away."

Annabeth smirked. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and led him away. The daughter of Athena spoke, "This was probably the easiest game of capture the flag I have ever played."

"Can we not rub it in?" Nico groaned. Annabeth smirked and led him towards the border. It was where they kept their prisoners.

"Guys!" Travis Stoll called. He waved to them. "The game is over. Chiron ended it."

"Over?" Annabeth wondered.

"Someone maimed Bryce. They found him bleeding horribly. No one knows what happened," Travis explained. Nico raised an eyebrow.

"So, Chiron ended the game?" Percy asked. Travis nodded and jogged away. "Has that ever happened?"

"Once," Annabeth responded. "There was a boy that got beaten up by kids from the Aphrodite cabin. He had broken up with their favorite sibling. They broke nearly every bone in his body."

"That is insane," Percy commented. "You should have told me about this before."

"Nico, did you maim Bryce?" Piper wondered.

"No," Nico answered. "I've been with Reyna until five minutes ago."

"Come on," Annabeth said. They walked towards where campers were gathered around. Bryce was being placed on a stretcher. His siblings were glaring at everyone as they tried to find the culprit.

"Nico probably did it!" one of the children of Ares yelled.

"I've been with Reyna the entire time. We were skirting around the forest," Nico explained. "We got split up, and Annabeth found me."

"We were taking him prisoner when we heard about Bryce," Annabeth added. Nico frowned. Did she really have to bring that up?

Nico glanced around looking for Reyna. He found his best friend standing near Chiron. Her hands were in the pockets of her jacket. She leaned in towards Chiron and whispered something.

"We will conduct an investigation," Chiron said to the waiting crowd.

"There is no need for an investigation," a child of Ares called. "Nico or Will did it because of what Bryce did."

"Nico has already explained his innocence," Will interrupted. "I was guarding the flag with one of my siblings."

"It's not going to do any good to accuse each other," Clarisse said. "Let's just go back to our cabins, so Chiron can investigate."

"That doesn't sound like her," Annabeth whispered.

"Maybe, she understands that Bryce deserved it," Nico grumbled. "Next week, you're going down Chase."

Nico walked away before Annabeth could reply. He picked up the habit of calling people by their last name from Reyna. The son of Hades walked towards his best friend.

"Fun game," Reyna commented.

"Where do you go?" Nico questioned.

"I was trying to find the flag," Reyna replied. She was lying. Before Nico could ask, Reyna motioned for him to follow. "Come on."

The two walked away from the crowd. Reyna was staring ahead. She looked content. When they were out of the sight of the others, Nico grabbed her hand. He pulled Reyna's hand out of her jacket pocket.

"Can I help you?" Reyna questioned. Her hand was completely free of blood. Reyna slipped her other hand out of her pocket. She gave Nico a look.

"Sorry," Nico began.

"It's fine," Reyna promised. "If I did maim Bryce, I would have washed my hands in the creek to make sure there was no blood."

"Did you?" Nico demanded. Reyna winked at him. "You did!"

"A praetor of Camp Jupiter would never do that," Reyna promised. She led Nico to his cabin. "Are we having a movie night tonight? "

"Yeah," Nico replied.

Reyna nodded and looked around. She looked back at Nico and leaned in close. The daughter of Bellona spoke, "Of course, I am just a camper here."

"Why did you do it?" Nico whispered.

"No one messes with your boyfriend," Reyna replied. "Besides, Bryce fell into my sword."

"You can't fall into swords," Nico argued. He was grateful for what Reyna had done. He didn't want her to get in trouble though.

"Anything can happen," Reyna countered. "Let's forget about Bryce and have a nice night."

"Sounds good," Nico said with a smile. The son of Hades followed Reyna. He really did have the best friend in the world.


	4. Dalmatians

**Thank you for all of the follows, favorites, and reviews.**

 **Part 1 of 2.**

* * *

"Want to share an ice cream?" Reyna questioned. Nico looked up at her distracted. He shook his head to try and focus. The son of Hades looked around.

The two were standing outside of an ice cream cafe. Nico had heard that it was one of the best in town. That was why he wanted to check it out with Reyna. His best friend nudged him.

"You seem distracted," Reyna commented. The concern was clear in her eyes.

"Your armor is so shiny," Nico joked. He sighed tiredly. "I haven't been sleeping well."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Reyna asked as she zipped up her jacket. Nico glanced up at her. That was the thing he appreciated about his friend. Reyna never pushed when it came to personal feelings.

"Not right now," Nico answered. Reyna nodded as she ran a hand through her wet hair. It had been raining hard that day. The rain had stopped only a few minutes ago. "What do you want to share?"

"The cookie dough looks good," Reyna commented.

"Cookie dough is the best," Nico agreed. He glanced around them. There was hardly anyone outside. They were scattered by the storm when it had hit. "I can pay for it."

"It's on me," Reyna said. She reached into her pockets. After pulling out various pocket knives, Reyna managed to find her wallet.

"How many pocket knives do you have?" Nico questioned.

"Want one," Reyna asked. Nico hesitated before nodding. Reyna smirked. "Do you want a silver, imperial gold, or a normal one?"

"Surprise me," Nico answered. He ducked as Reyna tossed all three at him. She laughed and ordered their ice cream. Nico scooped up the pocket knives. He watched Reyna pay.

"Are we still babysitting for Hedge?" Reyna asked as she looked at Nico. The son of Hades nodded. He put the pocket knives in his pocket.

"Of course," Nico said. He jumped as an Iris message appeared in front of him. The only thing that Nico could see was Hedge's terrified face.

"I need your help," Hedge gasped. He was out of breath and looked exhausted. The Satyr flinched as there was barking.

"What's going on?" Reyna questioned moving to Nico's side.

"I was getting diapers for Chuck," Hedge began. He flinched as there was another bark. "Everything was fine until I left the store. Well, there was that crazy lady. She's not important though. Anyway, some Dalmatians started to chase me after I left the store."

"Dalmatians?" Nico questioned. Hedge nodded.

"Dalmatians," Reyna repeated. She crossed her arms.

"They chased me onto a fence. I'm stuck," Hedge admitted. "The Dalmatians won't leave me alone either. There is also a poodle here."

"How are you sending the Iris message?" Reyna asked. She was rubbing her temples.

"Garden hose. Can we focus on saving me?" Hedge pleaded. His face was as white as a sheet. Reyna glanced back at the ice cream shop and cursed. She looked back at Hedge.

"You owe me an ice cream," Reyna said. She crossed her arms. "Where are you?"

Hedge looked around and read off a street name. Reyna ran a hand through the Iris message. She grabbed Nico and led him away. Nico spoke, "Are you going to kill Hedge?"

"Probably," Reyna muttered. She gripped her sword and gritted her teeth angrily. "Do you know where the street is?"

"It's not far from here," Nico promised. "How do you want to deal with the dogs?"

"If Hedge is stuck on a fence, there are probably dogs on both sides. We just move all of the dogs to one side of the fence," Reyna explained.

"We have a plan," Nico said. He looked around the street. People were slowly starting to fill up the streets. "We can't let Hedge live this down."

"He's not going to," Reyna guaranteed. She had a scary look in her eyes. They walked in silence for a minute.

"You like chocolate that much?" Nico wondered.

"No," Reyna admitted. She looked at him. "Hylla never let me have that many sweets as a kid. She always used the excuse that we couldn't afford it. The real reason was because I got really bad sugar highs."

"Do you still get them?" Nico questioned. He tried not to sound too excited. Reyna shrugged. Nico smirked. That bit of information would be tucked away for later.

Nico stopped walking. He nudged Reyna. She glanced at him. The son of Hades pointed to Hedge. He was stuck on top of a high fence and surrounded by dogs.

"Having fun?" Reyna questioned as she examined the situation. Nico tilted his head and studied it as well. He suppressed his laughter.

Hedge was sitting on top of an eight foot fence. There was four dogs on one side of the fence. They were all Dalmatians. The other side had three dogs. One was a poodle. The two others were German Shepherds.

"They're cute," Reyna commented. She walked towards the dogs and whistled softly. The two German Shepherds turned towards her.

"They are killers," Hedge warned. Reyna knelt next to the two German Shepherds and started to pet them.

"I think that they are perfectly harmless animals," Reyna argued. She pulled a squeaky toy out of her pocket and squeezed it. The squeak from the toy caught the attention of every animal in the area. Reyna stood and threw the toy as far as she could. The German Shepherds and the poodle chased after the toy.

Nico scooped up the poodle as it turned to run. He carried it towards the fence. Hedge was shaking horribly. The Satyr spoke, "Don't bring that near me!"

"Calm down," Nico ordered. He climbed the fence and sat on top of it. He gently dropped the poodle to the opposite side. "Are you ready to drop down?"

"I think," Hedge said. He slowly moved to the side of the fence where Reyna was waiting. Nico jumped down from the fence. He waited for Hedge.

"Where did you get the toy?" Nico asked.

"Aurum's favorite," Reyna responded. She glared at Hedge. "They also like to chew on Satyrs that interrupt us when we are going to have ice cream."

"I owe you two," Hedge promised. He slowly jumped down from the fence. He turned towards the other side of the fence. "Take that you stupid Dalmatians!"

"Why are you scared of them?" Reyna questioned.

"That doesn't matter. I need to go get my bag from where I left it," Hedge replied. He jumped as the German Shepherds walked to Reyna's side.

Reyna knelt in front of the dogs. She gently took the toy from one of them and spoke, "I wish I could take you two back with me. We should get you guys back home."

"Why were they chasing you in the first place?" Nico asked Hedge.

"After I left the store, one of the Dalmatians jumped its leash. It started to chase after me. The other animals joined after that," Hedge explained.

"The Dalmatian just suddenly went after you for no reason?" Reyna questioned.

"Yeah," Hedge confirmed. "I guess it wanted to take me on. Of course, I was destined to win that one."

"It chased you up a fence," Reyna muttered. A loud growl suddenly cut through the air. The two German Shepherds started to whine. They backed up and ran away.

"Hellhound," Nico stated looking around.

"You can control them, right?" Hedge asked. Nico nodded and tried to focus. Hellhounds were the one thing that was not suppose to attack children of Hades.

"Where is it?" Reyna wondered. Her eyes were darting around to the houses that surrounded them. Nico watched her turn away from the fence and saw her mouth move to call out a warning. Something slammed into them.

Nico hit the ground hard. His face bounced hard off of it which busted open his lip. Nico was stuck laying on his stomach. A cry of pain left his lips as the Hellhound's claws tore into his back.

Nico slowly looked at Reyna. She was pinned by the other paw of the Hellhound. Reyna was laying on her back. Nico could see how the Hellhound's claws had shredded her armor.

"Reyna?" Nico asked unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

"Hedge is totally getting his ass kicked," Reyna said in a pain filled voice. She gritted her teeth and tried to grab her sword.

"I wouldn't move another inch," a woman warned. Nico looked up to see a woman standing on the other side of the fence. "My Hellhound is inclined to tear your throats out."

Nico glared angrily. He studied the woman. She had red, crazed eyes and red hair. Her hair looked like it was falling out in clumps.

"You're the crazy lady from the supermarket," Hedge said. He raised his club.

"You are the insufferable Satyr," the woman spat. She snapped her fingers. Nico cried out as the Hellhound dug its claws deeper into his back. Reyna made a pained noise.

"Let them go," Hedge snapped. He stepped forward.

"Don't fight her," Reyna gasped.

"Smart girl," the woman said as she twitched. She snapped her fingers. The Hellhound stepped away from them. Nico closed his eyes tightly as fresh blood ran from his wound.

"Who are you?" Hedge demanded. He hurried to Nico's side. The son of Hades made a motion towards Reyna. His best friend wasn't moving

"That doesn't matter," the woman replied. She snapped her finger. A Dalmatian hopped over the fence and landed by Hedge. The Satyr yelped and fell backwards. He scrambled away.

"You aren't going to help your friends?" the woman taunted. She jumped on top of the fence and jumped off of it smoothly. The woman nudged Reyna with her foot. "I don't think this one is going to last much longer."

Nico glared angrily. He tried to move, but pain kept him in place. Hedge stared for a few moments and spoke, "Just let the kids go. They didn't do anything to you."

"I will not suffer an insult," the woman snapped. Nico slowly turned his head to look at the Hellhound. It seemed to have foam coming from its mouth. It looked insane.

"What did you do to the Hellhound?" Nico asked in a weak voice.

"I just gave the beast some craziness," the woman replied. Nico frowned and tried to think. No name came to mind.

"Lyssa," Hedge muttered. "You're dead for what you did."

"What are you going to do? You're just a washed up Satyr," Lyssa taunted. Hedge yelled in rage and jumped forward. He slammed his club into the goddess' head. She crumpled to the ground.

Hedge turned towards Nico but jumped backwards. He stared at the Dalmatian. Nico spoke tiredly, "Hedge, you need to face your fears. It's just a dog."

Hedge stared in fear. He shook his head. Nico laid his head on the ground. This had to be the worst way to go.

"Cupcakes, stay awake," Hedge ordered. The Hellhound lunged at the Satyr. Hedge jumped to the side. He swung his club into the Hellhound's head. It broke in his hands, and the Hellhound stumbled back stunned.

Hedge grabbed Reyna's sword and lunged forward at the Hellhound. He stared as it disintegrated. Hedge turned towards Nico and spoke, "Looks like I saved the day. Can you hear me? Nico, you don't look so good."

"I'm fine," Nico promised as he looked at Hedge. The Satyr slowly moved towards the Dalmatian which was by Nico's side. Nico watched Hedge before everything faded.


	5. Bed Rest

**Part 2 of 2.**

* * *

"They want us to do what?" Reyna asked. Her mind was fuzzy from something. It took her a moment to realize that it was some kind of pain medication. The daughter of Bellona laid her head back.

"Will and Annabeth demanded that we rest," Nico said. He was in a bed near her. The son of Hades was laying on his stomach. Even though Nico was wearing a shirt, Reyna knew he had a bandage underneath. "Annabeth called it bed rest."

"Bed rest?" Reyna questioned. She looked around the room and tried to think. Her brain felt like it was processing information at half speed. It would be terrible for a fight. "What does that mean?"

"It means that you two are not going to leave the bed you're in," Annabeth said from the doorway. She looked concerned. She also could have been annoyed. Reyna really couldn't tell.

"What exactly did you give me?" Reyna groaned. She slowly raised her hand in front of her face and clenched her fist. That would make a good weapon if she ever lost her sword. Where was her sword anyway?

"The strongest pain killers we could find," Annabeth replied. "They might make you a little loopy."

"Did you know that your fist would make a good weapon?" Reyna wondered. She needed to make sure they knew that. It was a really good tip. "Where did I get this tattoo from? Hylla is going to kill me when she finds out."

"This is the mighty praetor of Rome," Nico joked. He had a concerned look though. Reyna wondered why.

"Who?" Reyna asked. Nico started laughing. Reyna slowly looked at him. She tried to sit up.

"Hey, you aren't allowed to get up," Annabeth ordered. She gently pushed Reyna down. "You're going to tear your stitches if you don't relax."

"Why do I have stitches?" Reyna questioned. She slowly felt the bandage on her chest. "Everything feels fuzzy."

"Those pain killers were stronger than we thought," Annabeth commented. She sat by Reyna. "You two were attacked by a rabid Hellhound. Lyssa caused it to happen. She's the goddess of madness in animals."

"Hedge took care of you two and gave you just enough time for the Apollo kids to get to you. It was still really close though," Annabeth continued.

"I remember ice cream," Reyna groaned. She laid her head back on the pillow. "Why doesn't anyone want me to have sugar?"

"You get bad sugar highs," Nico explained. Reyna grumbled to herself and closed her eyes. She was going to get out of bed as soon as Annabeth left the room. "Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt?" Reyna asked confused. She shifted and then groaned. "Yeah. It does hurt."

"Are you two hungry?" Annabeth questioned. She looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or be concerned.

"I'm fine," Reyna replied. She pulled a dagger out of her belt and examined it. After grabbing it by the blade, she looked at Nico. "Want to play catch?"

"Sure," Nico responded.

"No," Annabeth interrupted. She grabbed Reyna's dagger before she could throw it. "You two are going to hurt yourselves."

"We're already hurt," Reyna argued. "We can't get hurt anymore."

"It doesn't work like that," Annabeth said. She watched Reyna quietly. There was concern in her eyes.

"Not with that attitude," Reyna commented. She laid her head back. "How many painkillers did you give Nico?"

"Nowhere as much as you," Nico replied. "You were in a worse shape than I was. You worried me for a little there."

"I'm invincible," Reyna promised. "Besides, a Greek goddess isn't going to take me out. Nothing Greek will."

"Let's see if you say that during our next capture the flag game," Annabeth interrupted. Reyna smirked and muttered something in Spanish. She closed her eyes tiredly.

* * *

Reyna's eyes snapped open. She turned and gasped as she felt pain in her chest. The daughter of Bellona slowly turned to look at Nico. She spoke, "What happened?"

"You've been unconscious for hours. I think the painkillers wore off," Nico answered. Reyna slowly tried to sit up. It hurt, but she would live. "You were so out of it."

"Did I say anything stupid?" Reyna questioned. Nico just smiled. Reyna groaned and gritted her teeth. She slowly stood. "Are you ready to get out of here?"

"We shouldn't be up so soon," Nico argued. He looked restless though. Reyna smirked. Nico slowly stood. Reyna quickly helped Nico steady himself.

"Tear any stitches?" Reyna asked. Nico shook his head. "Good. What time is it?"

"It's seven," Nico replied. Reyna nodded and grabbed her sword. She sheathed it and placed a hand to her chest. "Are you sure you shouldn't rest?"

"I'm fine," Reyna lied. Her chest ached horribly. She could feel that some of her stitches had been torn. Hopefully, it wouldn't show through the bandage. "How are we going to get out of here?"

"Shadow travel is out of the question," Nico said. He took a step and winced. "I think going anywhere far is out of the question."

"We will probably give Annabeth a heart attack when she sees us," Reyna noted.

"She'll kill us when she sees us walking," Nico commented.

"Then, we don't let her see us," Reyna said. She opened the door to the infirmary and peeked out. "Is everyone at the campfire?"

"I think so," Nico said. Reyna nodded and motioned for him to follow. They stepped out of the infirmary. Reyna led Nico to his cabin.

Reyna gritted her teeth as she walked. Her chest was really starting to bother her. Nico glanced at her. He seemed to understand her pain. Reyna spoke in a quiet voice, "Hey."

"You should go lay back down," Nico suggested.

"No," Reyna muttered. She gritted her teeth angrily. "I hate having to rest. I know my own limits."

"You like to push them," Nico commented. He grabbed Reyna's arm. "Can you lay down when we're in my cabin? I don't want you hurting yourself anymore."

"Only because you begged," Reyna grumbled. It felt odd to have someone worry about her so much. The only one who every really did was Hylla. Their relationship was strained though. "I really don't want to think about that."

"Think about what?" Nico questioned. He slowly opened the door to his cabin. Reyna frowned as she realized she had spoken aloud.

"Nothing," Reyna lied.

"You're lying," Nico commented. He led Reyna to his bed. She laid on it with a dramatic sigh. Reyna didn't say anything else. "It's about Hylla isn't it?"

"How can you read me like an open book?" Reyna questioned. She looked at him. "It's really annoying."

"I know a thing or two about sister problems," Nico said.

"Your sister Bianca," Reyna remembered. They had not spoken much about that subject. Reyna felt tempted to gather information about her from the other demigods. It didn't feel right though. Nico would talk to her about it if he felt comfortable.

"Yeah," Nico muttered. He sat down by her and pulled his knees to his chest. Reyna sat up and looked at him. Nico looked like he wanted to speak, but his jaw was clenched.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Reyna said softly. She gripped Nico's shoulder. "I'm here if you want to talk though."

"I know," Nico whispered. He cleared his throat. "I don't think I'm ready to. Can you promise me that you will make up with your sister? You never know what can happen."

"I will," Reyna promised. She studied Nico for a few moments concerned. He was staring at a corner sadly. "How mad do you think Annabeth is going to be when she finds us?"

"We're going to be dead meat," Nico guessed. Reyna smirked and leaned against the wall. The pain from her chest came back. Nico nudged her. "You shouldn't have gotten up."

"I do a lot of things I shouldn't do," Reyna commented. She looked at Nico who took a deep breath.

"I think I am ready to talk about Bianca," Nico began. Reyna ignored her own pain and looked at him. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and pulled him close.

"Take your time," Reyna whispered. Nico nodded and took a few deep breaths. As he opened his mouth to speak, the door suddenly opened. Annabeth stood at the doorway with crossed arms.

"Why are you two not in the infirmary?" Annabeth demanded.

"Chase, now is not the time," Reyna said in a low voice. She felt Nico pull away and knew the moment had passed. Reyna bit back a curse and glared at Annabeth. The daughter of Athena seemed to realize that she had interrupted something.

"I wanted to get out of the infirmary. It was my idea," Nico lied. Reyna glanced at him. She frowned as he didn't meet her eyes.

"You should have waited till you were more healed," Annabeth chided. Reyna gave her a wolf's glare. It was one that even Lupa would have been proud of.

"You are not our mother Annabeth," Reyna said in a low voice. "Do not act like you know what is best for us."

"She's just worried about us," Nico said. He gave Reyna an odd look. Reyna just glared at Annabeth who was studying her.

"I don't need anyone to worry about me," Reyna snapped. She felt herself shutting down emotionally, and she didn't know why. Reyna suppressed a groan as she stood. She stalked past Annabeth.

"Reyna, wait!" Nico called. Reyna stopped at the door but didn't look back.

"I'll see you later Nico," Reyna muttered. She hated that she was walking away. Reyna wanted to force herself to turn back around and apologize to Annabeth and get Nico to talk about his sister. There was something that stopped her though.

Reyna swallowed painfully as she realized what it was. Talking to Nico was easy. She could express her emotions and thoughts without worry. When it came to other people, she just couldn't open herself up like that. Reyna was terrified to get close to other people. They never usually lasted long in the life of a demigod.

As Reyna was walking away, she felt someone grab her arm. They spoke, "Where are you going cupcake?"

"Hedge?" Reyna questioned as she turned. Hedge was holding a large bowl of ice cream in one his hands.

"Well, you and Nico saved me today. I thought the least I could do was get you two ice cream," Hedge said. "Why aren't you resting?"

Reyna didn't answer She heard two people walk up behind her. Nico grabbed her arm and spoke, "Reyna tried to escape, but you stopped her. She'll just have to stay with us Greeks for tonight."

"We can watch a movie," Hedge suggested.

"We don't have technology for that here," Annabeth argued. She glanced at Reyna who avoided her eyes. Hedge just gave a grin.

"Chase, I uh. You know," Reyna began. She slowly looked at Annabeth.

"Know what?" Annabeth teased. She smiled to show no harm was done. "It's fine. I know you aren't in the most pleasant of moods at the moment."

"You can't escape having friends here," Nico whispered. Reyna hated how he just managed to know what she was thinking. "They just keep dragging you back no matter how hard you try to escape. Trust me, I tried."

Reyna couldn't tell if he was joking or not. She cleared her throat and spoke, "Hedge, should we go watch your contraband?"

"Of course. Come on cupcakes," Hedge responded. He wrapped one arm around Reyna's shoulders and the other around Nico's. The Satyr started to lead them away. "You can come too Annabeth, but if you tell on us, I will have to kill you."


	6. Abuela

**Thank you for all of the follows, favorites, and reviews.  
**

* * *

"I'm sorry, but your opinion is wrong," Nico said as he looked at Reyna. She was rubbing her hands together as she tried to warm herself up.

"It's not as wrong as your opinion," Reyna countered. She looked up at the sky and sighed. Her breath came out visible. "How do people live with snow?"

"Are you not use to it?" Nico taunted.

"I've only seen it a few times," Reyna answered. She cursed as she almost slipped on a patch of ice. Reyna shivered again and gritted her teeth.

"I don't think you should be wearing tennis shoes," Nico commented. It was kind of funny to see. He had convinced Reyna not to wear any armor other than a breastplate on her next visit. His main argument was that she would be hot if she wore full armor, but that was only because Reyna would punched him if he said she needed to not be so paranoid.

Nico had no clue that it had even snowed. He spent the night before at Camp Jupiter. The two had shadow traveled to New York. As soon as they stumbled out of the shadows, they both fell right on their faces. Nico was the first to his feet. Then, the two had gotten into their argument.

"Are you sure you don't want to head back?" Nico asked concerned. Nico was perfectly fine. He had been wearing pants and an aviator jacket that Reyna had bought him a few weeks ago.

"I'm fine," Reyna lied. She shivered again. Reyna was wearing tennis shoes, shorts, and a breastplate over her jacket. The daughter of Bellona pulled her hood up.

"You don't have to be so stubborn," Nico said. "I don't want you catching a cold."

"You can stop being so stubborn by thinking that Jason is better than Freddy Krueger," Reyna countered.

"Do you really want to have this argument Ramirez?" Nico questioned.

"That's Praetor Ramirez to you," Reyna said with a pointed look. Nico increased his speed. Reyna tried to follow but ended up slipping. A stream of curses flew from her mouth.

Nico was honestly surprised about how much Reyna cursed. She was so composed in public that it was just odd. Behind closed doors, she cursed like a sailor. There was no way he could prove it though. The cursing was usually in Latin or Spanish.

"Did Hylla curse around you that much when you were younger?" Nico questioned. Reyna looked up at him as he helped her stand.

"Nico, every other word out of a pirate's mouth is a curse," Reyna explained. "I was on a ship with them for months. It becomes a habit after awhile."

As Reyna stepped forward, she slipped again. Reyna tried to catch herself on the ground. Nico heard a small crack. A curse left his best friend's mouth a moment later.

"I hate snow," Reyna muttered. She sat on the snow and gently felt her wrist. Nico knelt next to her worried. "Do you have nectar?"

"Yeah," Nico answered. He quickly grabbed his canteen and handed it to Reyna. She took a small sip. "Does it hurt?"

"I'm fine," Reyna promised. She felt her wrist. "You can start making fun of me now."

"You're injury prone," Nico commented. He sighed. "I shouldn't have made fun of you about not being use to the snow."

"Are you feeling guilt?" Reyna asked. Her nose crinkled in disgust. "Get out of here. I'm fine. Hey, you might be able to beat me in sparring now."

"We can do it right now," Nico teased. He helped Reyna stand. "You'll be sliding everywhere."

"When is the movie?" Reyna questioned.

"We should treat your wrist first," Nico began. Reyna gave him a look. It was her famous look that said she would punch Nico if he kept talking. "Or, we can go to the movie."

"Good. Go ahead. I'm going to retie my shoes," Reyna muttered. It was Reyna speak for leave me alone because I don't want to show my pain.

"I'll wait for you around the corner," Nico muttered. He started to walk away then looked back at Reyna. "Stop being so stubborn."

"After you admit Freddy Krueger is better," Reyna said. Nico smiled and walked away. He turned the corner and leaned on a wall. He closed his eyes.

After a few moments, Nico muttered to himself in ancient Greek. He pushed himself off of the wall. The street was silent which allowed him to hear soft footsteps and the sound of a sword being unsheathed.

Nico turned and jumped backwards. He slipped on the snow and fell to the ground. His head bounced off of the ice. If he died because of this, he was never going to live it down. Nico rolled to the side as a sword landed where his groin had been. That was not cool.

Nico scrambled to his feet and looked at his opponent. He stared at the old woman. She had to be in her sixties. The old woman had silver hair and brown eyes.

"Death to the Greeks," the woman spat. Nico still couldn't get over the fact that was fighting an old woman. Something about her seemed familiar. Before Nico could think about what it was, the old woman attacked.

Nico dodged to the side. He wondered if he should fight back. Would the old woman get hurt if he did? Was she crazy?

"I don't want to fight you," Nico began. The woman attacked. Nico parried the blow and jabbed forward. The woman disarmed him. Before Nico could react, he was on his back.

This was not how Nico planned the fight going down. The old woman, despite her age, moved extremely fast. She was probably more agile than Nico.

"Leave him alone," Reyna ordered. Nico glanced up. He saw his best friend slowly walking towards them. She had her sword in front of her in a defensive stance.

The old woman backed away from Nico and studied Reyna. She suddenly attacked. Reyna caught the blow only for the woman to disarm her.

The woman placed her sword to Reyna's neck. Reyna stared for a few moments. She suddenly pushed the woman's sword away and flipped out a dagger.

Nico scrambled to his feet and grabbed his sword. He attacked the woman from one side. Reyna attacked from the other. The woman easily held them off.

Reyna hissed an order to Nico in Latin. They had been training together and gotten use to speaking battle orders in Latin and Greek. Nico nodded to show he understood.

It was going to be a simple maneuver. Reyna would ramp up her offense and force the woman to focus on her. Nico would flank around and attack her exposed back.

Reyna stabbed forward. The old woman blocked, and the two engaged in a deadly duel. Nico slipped around the back. Before he could attack, the woman suddenly spun around.

As the woman spun, she slammed her elbow into Reyna's face. The woman faced Nico and stabbed forward. Nico jumped backwards. His feet landed on ice, and he slipped.

Before Nico could stand, Reyna was thrown next to him. The woman studied them silently. Nico spoke, "We are getting destroyed by an old woman."

"Who are you?" Reyna demanded. She wiped blood away from her nose. The woman seemed to hesitate. Reyna placed her good hand to the ground and slowly got into a crouched position. She scooped her sword up and lunged at the woman.

The woman sidestepped and tripped Reyna. The woman grabbed Reyna as she fell and held her up. The praetor didn't try to fight.

"Reyna?" the woman asked. She turned Reyna around to study her face and took off Reyna's hood.

"Who are you?" Reyna demanded. She stumbled back as the woman let her go. Nico stood and slowly grabbed his sword. He was ready to jump to Reyna's defense.

"I thought you were dead," the old woman muttered. She handed Reyna her sword. The woman then grabbed Reyna's face and gently examined her. "How is Hylla?"

"Who in Jupiter's name are you?" Reyna asked pulling away. She placed a hand to her bloody nose. Nico stood by his best friend's side and glared at the old woman.

"I'm surprised you don't recognize your grandma," the woman commented. Reyna stared. "Of course, I suppose you were too young. Your father wanted us to stop visiting. He claimed that I was attracting the monsters."

"Abuela," Reyna whispered. The woman smiled and pulled Reyna into a hug. Reyna hugged her back.

"What's going on?" Nico asked. He was confused beyond belief. First, this woman wanted to kill Greeks. Now, she was hugging Reyna like she hadn't of seen her for years.

"Nico, this is my grandma," Reyna said.

"He's a Greek," Reyna's grandmother noted.

"The Romans have made peace with the Greeks," Reyna explained.

"Sorry for attacking you," Reyna's grandmother said. She grabbed snow and pressed it to Reyna's bloody nose.

"It's fine," Nico said. "I'm Nico. Son of Hades."

"Isabella. Daughter of Mars," Reyna's grandmother greeted. Nico nodded his head in a greeting. Isabella had the common sense to wear pants and a large jacket. Nico would have to tease Reyna that common sense didn't travel far in her family.

"You're a demigod?" Reyna questioned. Nico watched them but remained silent.

"There was a lot of things you father did not tell you," Isabella commented. She smiled. "Where is he?"

"He's dead," Reyna whispered. Her eyes flickered towards Nico. She looked horribly nervous. Isabella opened her mouth but closed it. She nodded once.

"Is that why you came to the states?" Isabella wondered.

"To make a long story short," Reyna replied. She seemed to relax since her grandmother didn't question her too much. "You're here for the demigod ball?"

"Ball?" Nico interrupted.

"Camp Jupiter holds a ball every five years for all former members of the legion. The current members of the Legion are the ones who run things," Isabella explained.

"They act as servers and waiters," Reyna added. "The praetors host the entire thing."

"How is Hylla?" Isabella wondered.

"Queen of the Amazons," Reyna responded. Isabella smiled happily. She looked at her watch and back at her granddaughter.

"I have a meeting I must attend to. I promise that I will visit you at Camp Jupiter as soon as I can. The hardest part will be convincing the praetors to all me to," Isabella said.

"Why is that?" Nico wondered.

"I've only heard a few things about them. The boy seems to be okay. People call him inexperienced. They call the female a hard ass," Isabella answered.

"She is," Nico promised. He made an odd noise as Reyna punched him in the back.

"It was nice to see you again Abuela," Reyna said. She hugged her grandmother. Isabella hugged her back and looked at Nico.

"It was a pleasure to meet you son of Hades," Isabella said.

"You too," Nico replied. Isabella nodded and walked away. Reyna stared at her for a few moments. When Reyna's grandmother was out of sight, the praetor turned on Nico.

"Hard ass?" Reyna demanded. Nico shrugged. "You're dead meat."

"You have to catch me first," Nico taunted. He turned to run but slipped on the snow. Nico tried to catch himself on the ground but felt something in his wrist break.

"I call that karma," Reyna said. She helped Nico stand and examined his wrist. "It looks like we have matching injuries."

"We are not going to live this down," Nico commented.

"We can just claim that I am so accident prone that it has rubbed off on you," Reyna said. Nico laughed. "Do you want to head back to Camp Half-Blood or see the movie?"

"We're going to watch the movie," Nico promised. He smiled at Reyna. "After this."

"After what?" Reyna asked confused. Nico smiled and scooped up snow. He threw it at Reyna. The daughter of Bellona stared for a few moments. "You are so dead."

"You have to catch me first," Nico taunted. He turn and ran away. Reyna chased after him. Nico turned the corner only to slip on a patch of ice. Reyna caught him by his jacket before he could fall.

"Hurt?" Reyna asked.

"No," Nico answered.

"Good," Reyna said. Nico cried out in surprise as Reyna dumped snow down his shirt. She let go of him. Nico turned and stared at her.

"That was a low blow," Nico complained.

"Do you know what else is?" Reyna asked.

"What is?" Nico wondered. Before he could react, Reyna threw snow in his face. Nico stared. Reyna winked and took off running. He chased after her vowing vengeance.


	7. Game Night

"If you do that, I will kill you," Reyna warned. Her voice was deadly quiet. Her glare was deadly serious. Reyna stared down the person across from her.

"I'm going to do it," Annabeth promised. She picked up the die that was laying on the board. Nico held his breath. Despite the fact that it was Monopoly, he was getting scared.

Nico had been knocked out of the game first. He had terrible luck with dice. There was also the fact that Monopoly really relied on numbers, and Nico's math skills were really rusted. Oh, there was also the small fact that Annabeth was a freak of nature when it came to math.

"All you need to do is avoid getting a three," Percy said. He was taken out second. Percy mistakenly believed Annabeth would go nice on him since they were dating. Annabeth quickly destroyed that thought by targeting him and getting rid of him in twelve turns.

Reyna was the only one who survived the onslaught. She had been playing it smart and quiet. The quiet part came from the fact that she was losing her voice. Reyna had spent the day before yelling at legionnaires for a prank gone horribly wrong.

All Nico knew was that there was a game of paintball that had been conducted inside camp and near the temples. Multiple statues ended up covered in paint. One belonged to Bellona.

"So, what should I not do?" Annabeth asked Reyna.

"Roll a three," Reyna replied in a hoarse voice. Annabeth laughed as did Percy. Reyna glared daggers at the two. "I hate you both."

"You know you love us," Percy teased. He leaned on Annabeth and ate a handful of popcorn.

"I would love to punch you," Reyna muttered.

"What?" Percy asked. Reyna didn't respond.

"Someone is just cranky because they got yelled at by Lupa," Annabeth teased. Reyna looked up and glared.

"Wouldn't it be growled at?" Percy questioned. Reyna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Nico placed a hand to her shoulder and rubbed it. Reyna released her grip on her dagger.

Annabeth rolled the die. Reyna glared up at the roof of the Hades cabin as Annabeth rolled a three. Reyna picked up the die and looked like she wanted to crush it.

"You just have to roll a seven," Nico said. Earlier in the game, Annabeth had told them it was the most likely number to end up rolling. Nico didn't want to know why she knew that.

Reyna nodded and shook the die in her hand. She studied the board intently. Her piece was in no man's land. Everything around her was filled with hotels and houses that belonged to Annabeth. Reyna took a deep breath and rolled the die.

"Son of a bitch!" Reyna snapped. Nico couldn't help it. He started laughing. Percy and Annabeth joined in.

Reyna glared intently at the die. She tossed her money at Annabeth angrily. The daughter of Athena counted it up and spoke, "You're missing five dollars."

"I don't have anymore money," Reyna muttered.

"You have a wallet," Annabeth commented. Reyna shot her a look. The daughter of Athena laughed. "No, I'm actually serious. It's in the rules."

"You're lying," Reyna said. She crossed her arms. Her voice sounded worse ever since she had yelled.

"What is Annabeth doing?" Percy asked. He looked like he was trying not to laugh.

"Lying," Reyna answered. Percy started laughing. Reyna glared. Nico looked at the rulebook. His eyes widened.

"It does say that," Nico said. Reyna grabbed the rulebook out of his hands. She stared at the words.

"There's no way this is real," Reyna said in a low voice. Nico thought it was anger, but he realized she couldn't speak any louder.

"It's a rule. I thought that Romans followed rules," Annabeth teased. Reyna pressed her finger against the rulebook and smudged the sentence. She showed Annabeth the ink on her thumb.

"Did you really fake an entire rulebook to get money?" Reyna demanded.

"Percy dared me to," Annabeth responded. She started to put away the game. Reyna glared at both of them. Nico helped put Monopoly away. He slowly grabbed the trivia game that had been set out earlier.

"I call Annabeth," Nico said quickly. Reyna gave him an offended look. Nico looked away. "Sorry."

"She's my girlfriend, so we are working together," Percy countered.

"I'll take Nico," Annabeth said. Percy's jaw dropped opened. He finally moved to Reyna's side. Nico hurried to Annabeth's.

"Wait," Percy said. He looked at Reyna. "You left your home when you were like ten. So, you have like a fourth grade education."

"Which is better than you," Reyna muttered. She rubbed her throat and looked at the trivia game. "How do we play this?"

"One teams asks the other a question. One team get to chose who answers the question, but the answering team can pick one of three categories on the card. If they get it right, they get a point."

Nico grabbed a card. He saw the three categories were math, history, and language. He didn't both to look at the actual questions. Since Percy had more education, he choose Reyna to answer the question.

"History," Reyna muttered. Nico looked at the card and read the question for history. Annabeth read it over his shoulder. She shot him a look.

"Did you read the question before you chose her?" Annabeth wondered.

"No," Nico admitted. He looked at Reyna. "Who led Rome into the period known as the Pax Romana?"

"Augustus Caesar," Reyna answered.

"Wrong," Annabeth said. Reyna gave her a look. Nico glanced at Annabeth.

"It was Augustus," Reyna argued.

"The card says Octavian Caesar," Annabeth explained.

"They are the same person," Reyna snapped. Nico barely kept in his laugh from how Reyna's voice squeaked. Percy wasn't so lucky. Reyna didn't look at Percy as she slapped him in the back of the head.

"We have to go by what the cards says," Annabeth argued. "We can give you half a point for getting the Caesar part right."

"You get the next question,' Reyna snapped. She grabbed the card and looked at it. "Science, history, or art."

"Art," Annabeth answered after a moment.

"Who wrote Oedipus Rex?" Reyna questioned. Nico wanted to ask how that was art, but he was scared of Reyna at the moment.

"Sophocles," Annabeth answered without hesitation. Nico smiled. Score one for them.

"Wrong," Reyna said. Annabeth shot her a look. Reyna showed them the card. "The answer is Sophocles. There is a period at the end. You have to add the period to your answer."

"The correct answer would be Sophocles period," Reyna explained.

"You are getting the next question praetor," Annabeth said through narrowed eyes. "History, art, or math."

"History," Reyna answered through gritted teeth. Annabeth looked at the card and glared.

"Which area of the world is the greatest source of civilization. Want a hint? It is not Rome," Annabeth taunted.

"What city-state fell because they were too scared to fight and barricaded themselves. They were crippled by a plague," Reyna countered.

"What empire almost lost to an escaped gladiator?" Annabeth asked.

"What city-state became power hungry and wasted so much money on a temple instead of the defense that the money was intended for?" Reyna countered.

"What great empire fell to uncivilized barbarians?" Annabeth asked. Reyna opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out. Nico realized that Reyna's voice had gone out. Annabeth smirked. "It looks like I win this argument."

Reyna grabbed the deck of trivia cards. She stabbed her dagger into it out of anger. Annabeth started laughing. Nico rubbed Reyna's shoulder and spoke, "You should rest your voice."

"I would also leave the camp before dinner tomorrow," Percy warned. "Prank week starts."

"The Stolls are really keeping that up?" Nico questioned. Annabeth nodded. "Who is off limits?"

"No one," Annabeth answered.

"Not even Chiron and Dionysus," Percy added. "The Stolls usually do the pranks, but we have a few pranks planned."

"What's our next game?" Nico questioned. Reyna grabbed a card game. Nico's eyes widened as he realized it was Uno.

"The game that ruins friendships," Percy whispered. He stared as if he was in awe. Reyna took the cards out of the box and started to shuffle them. She stared into Annabeth's eyes as she passed out the card.

"Should we really play this?" Nico questioned. Reyna nodded once and flipped over a red seven from the remnants of the deck. Nico placed down a red skip. Percy gasped in mock shock.

Annabeth looked Reyna dead in the eyes. Reyna glared at her angrily. It was like she was daring the daughter of Athena to anger her even more. Annabeth smiled, and she placed down a draw four.


	8. Prank Week Part One

"Look at the wild campers," Travis Stoll whispered as he leaned forward. "They roam around and fear for their lives. There is no telling when the lions will strike. No one knows."

"All the wild campers can do is wait," Connor Stoll added. "They know that the end is neigh. This camp will be torn asunder. Prank week has begun!"

"Why are you two sitting at my table?" Nico slowly asked. He stared at the two brothers. They both had devious grins. It was the kind that told him to run.

"We have a prank planned," Travis whispered. He leaned forward. "It is a prank so dangerous that we may lose our lives."

"We are going to prank Reyna," Connor announced. Nico choked on his food. He had a coughing fit. Travis and Connor both took turns hitting him on the back. Nico finally managed to calm himself.

The entire idea was suicidal. Reyna still wasn't over the night before. Nico vowed to never play Uno with Reyna again. If the Stolls were smart, they would stay out of the praetor's path.

"We want your help," Travis began.

"No," Nico interrupted. He placed his fork down. The Stolls kept him from standing. "She will kill me if I help you."

"She wouldn't kill her best friend," Connor argued. He smiled excitedly. "It's the perfect plan. At the moment, Reyna is sparring with Clarisse."

"We're going to prank her too," Travis added.

"You two are insane," Nico muttered. He tried once again to stand but felt two hands stop him. Travis and Connor smiled at him.

"Let us help you," Connor said. The Stolls stood and pulled Nico to his feet. Nico's eyes widened as he heard a tear.

"Glue at the bottom of the bench is the best," Travis commented. Nico tried to get away from the two. They held him up as the rest of his shorts fell away. "That answers the boxers or briefs question."

Nico could hear laughing from the campers but mostly the Ares cabin. Jerks. He managed to twist out of the Stolls' grasp. Nico turned and fled. He didn't take embarrassment well.

Nico turned a corner and slammed into Reyna at full speed. He fell on top of her . Reyna slowly placed a hand to her shoulder. She looked at Nico painfully.

"You aren't wearing pants," Reyna commented. Her voice had come back, but she could barely talk.

"Prank week," Nico muttered. He helped Reyna stand. The praetor rubber her shoulder. Nico watched her concerned. "Did Clarisse hurt you?"

"She may have knocked my shoulder out of place," Reyna answered.

"We're going to the infirmary," Nico said. He grabbed Reyna's arm and started to led her away. Reyna didn't fight which was odd. Nico was too embarrassed to dwell on it.

"Is anyone even in there?" Reyna questioned.

"I need to get Will," Nico groaned. He led Reyna towards the infirmary and stopped outside of it. Nico went to open the door but stopped. He turned towards Reyna. "Don't move."

"I won't move an inch," Reyna promised. She leaned on the wall and placed a hand to her shoulder. Reyna closed her eyes tiredly.

Nico hurried back the way he came. He then realized that he was still only wearing boxers. Nico groaned and walked towards his cabin. He ignored the stares he received from campers that were late to breakfast. The Stolls would probably poison their food.

"Today is going to be a good day," Nico whispered. He opened his door and stepped inside. There was a small noise. Nico didn't have time to react as something fell on him and covered him.

"Today is going to be a good day," Nico repeated. He wiped the paint from this eyes. "Today is going to be a good day after I kill the Stolls."

Nico didn't bother with the shorts. He was covered in pink paint. That was just insulting. The Stolls couldn't even bother to get a different color of paint.

It wasn't until he was halfway to the pavilion that he stopped once again. The campers would only laugh at him even more than before. His best option was to get cleaned off. What if there was a trap at the showers though?

Nico looked down. He walked back towards the infirmary. Reyna, hopefully, wouldn't laugh at him. Nico walked towards Reyna who was still leaning against the infirmary.

"What happened to you?" Reyna questioned.

"This stupid prank week," Nico grumbled. He crossed his arms. "First the glue and then paint."

"Why target you twice?" Reyna questioned. She rubbed her shoulder and put a hand to the door of the infirmary. Nico didn't answer. "Nico?"

"I hate this week already," Nico muttered. Reyna looked away. She sighed and opened her mouth. A scream suddenly tore through the camp. It was joined by more screams.

"Are we being attacked?" Reyna questioned. Her hand moved to her sword.

"Spiders," Nico said. He grabbed Reyna's arm and led her towards the Athena cabin. Reyna followed him quietly. Nico saw that a few campers had already gathered around the Athena cabin.

Nico looked at the cabin. He could see that the door was open. Almost every child of Athena was huddled in a corner of the room. They looked terrified.

"Where is the spider?" Nico whispered. He pushed to the front of the crowd but couldn't see anything. Reyna followed behind him.

"Are they really that scared of spiders?" Reyna whispered back. Nico nodded. Reyna sighed and walked into the cabin. She looked at the ground and finally stepped on a tiny spider. "You're all free from the evil spider now."

"It's spirit will continue to haunt us," a child of Athena whispered.

"Greeks are weird," Reyna commented. She walked out of the cabin. Nico followed behind her. He saw people pointing at him and laughing. Nico groaned as he realized they were laughing at him and that he would have to clean the paint off of his cabin.

Nico looked up as he heard footsteps. Annabeth ran towards them. She spoke, "What happened?"

"The Stolls put a spider in your cabin," Nico responded.

"A really small spider," Reyna added. "Where's Percy?"

"He has drawings on his face," Annabeth muttered. She rubbed her face tiredly. "How did the Stolls manage to set so many pranks up?"

"They didn't get any sleep," Nico guessed.

"There is no way they could have done that," Annabeth argued. "The two rely on sleep. They wouldn't be able to function. Besides, they always space their pranks out"

"It's simple then," Reyna interrupted. "The person who set these pranks up has problems with the children of Athena, Nico, and Jackson. They stayed up all night and set up the pranks. The Stolls were just the scapegoat."

"Who is evil enough to do that?" Annabeth wondered. Her eyes widened. "The Ares cabin!"

"Are they smart enough to do this?" Nico grumbled. He didn't enjoy that he was covered in paint. Nico crossed his arms. He only wondered how the Ares cabin managed to pull together to set up the pranks.

Nico knew that the Ares cabin had a small bit of infighting. By infighting, he meant that Clarisse was upset at her cabin. He didn't know the exact details though. That meant that Clarisse wasn't involved with the pranks.

"What do we do about it?" Annabeth wondered. It was clear that her mind was already racing.

"Revenge," Nico responded. He grabbed Reyna's arm. "You are going to be instrumental in getting it."

"My shoulder," Reyna began. She followed Nico and Annabeth. "Shouldn't we get it checked out?"

"Since when do you care about getting treatment after you get hurt?" Nico demanded. The only thing he could focus on was revenge.

"I don't," Reyna responded. "You two usually nag me into getting checked out."

"We can do it after revenge," Annabeth said. Reyna rolled her eyes. She felt around her shoulder and made a pained noise as she popped her shoulder back into place.

"Better already?" Nico asked. He opened his cabin door and sat down. "Annabeth, get Percy."

Annabeth nodded and hurried out. Reyna sighed and stretched her shoulder. She winced in pain and spoke, "You're really caught up on revenge."

"Look at what the Ares cabin did to me," Nico snapped. "You would be mad if they did this to you."

"Doubt it," Reyna said with a shrug. She winced in pain. Nico watched her suspiciously. Reyna looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think I did that?"

"Maybe," Nico responded.

"Would I really douse my best friend with pink paint?" Reyna demanded. She glared angrily. "What would I gain out of putting a spider in Annabeth's cabin. If I did do it, I would have used a Tarantula and made sure Annabeth was in the cabin."

"I know," Nico said. He relaxed. "Sorry."

Reyna shrugged. She sat on the bed and leaned against the wall. Nico looked down. Now, he felt like crap for accusing his best friend.

"Want to help us with revenge?" Nico slowly asked.

"I'm good," Reyna muttered. She stood and walked towards the door "I have a meeting to keep with Chiron."

"What's it about?" Nico questioned. Reyna walked out without responding. "And, I pissed her off. Great."

Annabeth walked in a minute later with Percy. The son of Poseidon was using his hands to cover his face. Percy slowly lowered his hands. Nico barely choked back a laugh.

"That's a very accurate picture of that," Nico commented. "I guess we can narrow that down to suspects that have seen one."

"Boys then," Percy muttered. He crossed his arms.

"Where did Reyna go?" Annabeth wondered. She closed the door of the cabin and sat Percy down.

"I made her mad by accusing her," Nico commented.

"Reyna would never do that," Annabeth protested.

"I know," Nico grumbled. He crossed his arms and stared at the ground.

"Can we focus on revenge?" Percy interrupted.

"We're going to do revenge first," Annabeth said. "Then, we are going to help Nico apologize. The Ares cabin is going to pay."


	9. Prank Week Part Two

"I think that cooperative capture the flag games would be good," Reyna said as she leaned back in her seat. She was sitting outside the Big House playing Pinochle with Dionysus and Chiron. Dionysus kept muttering in ancient Greek about how he wished that he could be hiding at Olympus like the others.

"When can you start them?" Chiron wondered. He placed down a bet. Reyna bit her lip as she considered her options. She finally placed her own bet.

"We have a ball coming up for former legionaries. The best time would probably be after that," Reyna responded. "I can also have anyone that lives outside of camp keep an eye out for demigods and have them sent your way."

"I can have the Satyrs do the same," Chiron offered.

"I will have to decline," Reyna said. "Lupa would tear me apart if I agreed. She thinks that every demigod must find their own way."

"You should agree," Dionysus interrupted. "I love watching demigods being torn apart."

"I love beating gods at Pinochle," Reyna commented as she placed her cards on the table. Dionysus glared. Reyna watched him calmly. "Is there anything else we much discuss Chiron?"

"I believe that covers it," Chiron answered. "I will be sending an Iris message in a few days to hammer out the details."

Reyna nodded. She stood and spoke, "It was a honor to play Lord Dionysus. The same to you Chiron. I must head back to my camp now."

"Goodbye praetor,"Chiron said. Reyna nodded to him and turned away. She walked down the steps. Reyna glanced around the camp. The after effects of the Stolls pranks were starting to show.

"Roman," a voice said. Reyna turned to look at Clarisse. "Running off so soon?"

"I have to get back to my camp," Reyna responded. She saw two campers glancing at them as they walked past.

"Are you sure that you aren't just running from the beating I gave you?" Clarisse sneered.

"You managed to knock my shoulder out of socket because of luck," Reyna said. She crossed her arms. Reyna glanced around to see the two campers turn a corner. No one was in sight.

"I think we did great," Clarisse commented. "Do they suspect anything?"

"Nico did at first," Reyna responded. She glanced around. "I just had to pretend I was angry. He immediately backtracked."

"My siblings will pay for what they did," Clarisse grumbled. She pushed herself off of the wall. "Chase and Jackson want revenge on them?"

"You drew male extremities on Jackson's face," Reyna said. "I think he wants revenge. That was pretty sad of you too."

"You're the one who put a spider in Annabeth's cabin," Clarisse countered. "You also caused your best friend to get covered in paint."

"Worth it," Reyna decided. She sighed tiredly. "I better head back to Camp Jupiter. Annabeth will have the flag next week, right?"

Clarisse nodded. Reyna turned to walk away. Clarisse spoke, "It was fun. We need to do that again."

"You'll have to come to my camp sometime," Reyna commented. She turned around. "The story of you killing the drakon spread around after Jackson told it to Dakota. Lots of campers want to meet you."

"We'll see," Clarisse said. Reyna smirked. She walked away and walked towards Nico's cabin. Reyna knocked on the door and stepped in.

Nico looked up at her. He was putting on a clean shirt. It seemed like he had cleaned himself up. Reyna felt guilty that she had set up those pranks and blamed it on the Stolls, but she did her best to ignore that guilt.

"I'm heading out," Reyna said. "I thought I would stop by."

"I am really sorry for accusing you," Nico began.

"It's cool. I would be mad too," Reyna promised. She bit the inside of her lip and tried to ignore the guilt that was blossoming. "Where did Jackson and Chase go?"

Before Nico could answer, the Stolls barged into the cabin. Reyna turned to look at them. One glared at her. The other was covered in paint.

"We know what you did," one of the Stolls said. Reyna didn't know which one. She didn't have time to care. Reyna grabbed both by their shirt collars and dragged them out of the cabin.

"If you say a word, I will kill you," Reyna hissed.

"What do you think Connor," the Stoll covered in paint asked.

"We should Travis, "Connor answered. Reyna glared at both of them.

"What's going on?" Nico questioned. He stepped out of his cabin. The Stolls looked at him. Connor nodded to his brother.

"Reyna saw that there was paint in the infirmary. She didn't warn us," Travis replied. "She should have though."

"Why would you walk into your own paint trap?" Nico wondered.

"Someone framed us," Connor said. "We're not sure who."

Travis shot Reyna a look. She made a point of placing her hand to her sword. Nico looked in between them. His eyes widened a fraction, and he stepped back. Reyna instinctively ducked to the side.

Connor yelped as he got hit by a water balloon. Reyna immediately covered her nose and mouth. The worst stench ever was coming from the liquid that was covering Connor.

"This is not cool," Connor complained. "What is this?"

"You don't want to know," Annabeth promised. She was holding two more water balloons. Percy stood next to her holding a bag full of them. He had his face covered in war paint. It covered Clarisse's horrible drawing.

"We didn't do it" Travis complained. "It was Reyna and Clarisse."

Reyna stayed frozen in place as her three friends turned to look at her. Nico looked the most hurt. He spoke, "You set up all those pranks?"

"It wasn't like that," Reyna began. Battle instincts saved her from being hit by a water balloon. She dodged to the side at the last moment. It flew by her face.

"You drew this on my face," Percy complained. He threw another water balloon. Reyna dodged again.

"If you would give me time to explain," Reyna began. Annabeth held up a hand. Reyna waited before taking a step back. "I didn't think it would go down like this, and Clarisse drew it."

"You doused me in paint," Nico said. "You put a spider in Annabeth's cabin. Why not come to us? We could have pulled a prank on someone else."

"It's a really simple explanation," Reyna said. She ducked behind the Hades cabin and took off running. For once, Reyna was grateful that she wasn't wearing armor. She ran towards the Big House putting as many walls as possible between her and the others.

Reyna turned a corner at full speed and saw Clarisse standing at the front entrance of the Big House. Reyna quickly jumped onto the porch and spoke, "They know."

"How?" Clarisse demanded. Reyna took a few moments to steady her breathing. Clarisse glanced around.

"Stolls," Reyna answered. "I guess they heard us talking. Jackson and Chase have water balloons and are not far behind."

Clarisse seemed to think. She spoke, "Chiron. They won't hit us if we are next to him."

"I have good aim," Annabeth interrupted. She walked towards them. Percy was trying to sneak around the side. Reyna could guess that Nico was flanking their other side.

"We can talk this out," Reyna began. She backed up to the door and placed a hand on the handle. "You do not want to throw that water balloon."

"Are you really going to hide behind Chiron?" Annabeth challenged. "I thought Romans were suppose to be tough. Are you scared of a fight?"

"This is more of a sneak attack," Clarisse commented. "Of course, the children of Athena were always cowards."

Annabeth threw the water balloon. Clarisse dove to the side. Reyna ducked below the water balloon. She instinctively opened the door to block the balloon that Percy threw. Reyna wasn't fast enough to avoid the balloon that Nico threw.

It hit her right in the face. Reyna gagged as she tasted some of the liquid. She turned her head to the side and spat some of it out. Nico started laughing.

"That was for the paint," Nico said still laughing. Reyna wiped her face with her shirt. She stood and barely ducked another balloon.

"Really?" Reyna complained. She slipped around the door. Reyna was standing right in front of the entrance. She was ready to duck inside if she needed to.

"I haven't gotten revenge for the spider in my cabin," Annabeth said with a shrug. "Why do that anyway?"

"You aren't targeting Clarisse," Reyna complained. She smelled horrible and couldn't get the taste out of her mouth. Reyna didn't even want to describe it.

"She's next," Annabeth promised. She threw the water balloon. Reyna ducked under it. Annabeth's eyes widened. Reyna could tell that the water balloon had hit someone, but she didn't know who.

Reyna turned and cursed. Dionysus stood there angrily. He had been hit right in the face. Dionysus took a deep breath.

"Why?" Dionysus asked. He looked surprisingly calm. "Why am I covered in this, and who is going to die because of it? No, I don't want anyone to answer that."

"You all have three seconds to leave. As of now, prank week is officially done. Understood?" Dionysus demanded. The demigods slowly nodded. "Praetor, I want you to stay behind because we need to discuss how you have not displayed the behavior of a leader."

Nico shot Reyna an apologetic look. Reyna just stayed where she was. She watched the others leave. Dionysus turned to look at her. The two stayed in silence for a few moments.

"I believe this went better than planned," Dionysus commented. He waved his hand, and the liquid disappeared from his shirt. Reyna stood. "You have my thanks praetor. Zeus would never allow me to get rid of prank week unless I have a valid excuse."

"You can now get rid of prank week, or you get to fry Annabeth for hitting you," Reyna guessed. Dionysus nodded. "Anything else you need my lord?"

"Aw. Respect is a wonderful thing," Dionysus commented. "You performed your job to the letter, and you have the support you need."

"Thank you sir," Reyna said. Dionysus turned away. Reyna started to walk away.

"You didn't get killed," Nico said. He turned a corner from where he had been hiding. "That's good. Now, what is going on exactly?"

"Yesterday, I approached Dionysus about some support that I needed. He told me that he would help if I managed to help him get rid of prank week. I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you," Reyna explained.

"Sorry about the balloon," Nico said. Reyna shrugged.

"I have to leave. See you next week?" Reyna asked. Nico smirked and gave her a tight hug. He pulled away and made a disgusted face.

"You smell horrible," Nico commented. Reyna rolled her eyes. Nico smiled. "I'll see you next week Reyna. Stay safe."

"Watch out for the remaining paint," Reyna teased. Nico's eyes darted around. Reyna winked at him and gave him another hug. She pulled away and walked towards the stables.


	10. The Cult

"Today is going to be great," Nico said to himself. He stood and brushed himself off. Shadow traveling was tiring business. It was the easiest way to get to Camp Jupiter though.

Nico was a little worried. He always Iris messaged Reyna every night. For the past two days, there had been no communication from Reyna. Nico had sent an Iris message to Frank who had only told him that his fellow praetor was on a secret mission.

Reyna should be returning that day. Nico wanted to be there to greet her. That was why he was there so early. There was something he had to do before that though.

Nico walked around until he found Hazel. She was leaning on a wall talking to Frank. That was good. Nico wouldn't have to hunt down Frank later and demand answers.

"Ave," Nico greeted. Frank turned and smiled at him. Hazel hugged Nico tightly.

"I've missed you," Hazel said. "You need to visit more."

"Sorry," Nico began. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Camp Half-Blood has busy lately. We had the Hunters of Artemis come."

Saying the words left a bitter taste in his mouth. Bianca had died because of them. They had put Reyna in danger when Orion had attacked them. The bitter taste got worse. He would probably drink acid to get it out.

"The Hunters are going to be visiting her soon," Frank said. "Everyone is really excited. We have a pretty cool war game planned."

Nico nodded and didn't respond. He may have accidentally glared at Frank since the praetor looked away. Hazel nudged him and spoke, "Are you waiting for Reyna?"

"Yeah," Nico responded. He frowned. "Where is she anyway?"

"I'm not sure," Frank responded. He glanced around and leaned in close. "About two days ago, a wolf came limping into the camp. It was one of Lupa's. Reyna and I discussed what we should do. We decided that she would go with the wolf to find out what had happened."

"And?" Nico questioned. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Frank's look confirmed it.

"I haven't heard anything from Reyna. I even tried speaking to my father. No one has heard from Lupa. She's usually a rogue, but she reports to them once a month. It's been over a month without a report," Frank explained.

"Lupa was attacked," Nico guessed. He kept his voice quiet. Frank nodded. "Reyna could be in trouble then."

Frank nodded once again. Nico instantly straightened. There was no way he was going to sit around while his best friend was in danger.

"Nico," Hazel began.

"Do you know anything else about where Reyna was?" Nico questioned. He ignored Hazel. Frank glanced at his girlfriend. "I don't have all day Zhang."

"You should think about this," Hazel began. Nico crossed his arms and glared. He waited a moment before nodding and turning away. "Where are you going?"

"I thought about it, and I am going," Nico said. He started to walk away.

"How are you going to find out where to go?" Frank questioned. Nico didn't answer. He just disappeared into the shadows.

Nico regretted his decision as soon as he fell out of the shadows and into the middle of a wedding. The bride and groom turned to look at him. They both stared angrily.

"I knew it!" a woman yelled as she stood. She had to be in fifties. Her features matched that of the groom suggesting she was his mother. "I knew the little wench wasn't good enough. The heavens have sent a sign!"

"She's not good enough for him?" an elderly man demanded. Nico stared. He saw that the two families were sitting as far away as possible from each other. "He's not good enough for her!"

"Do you wanna fight old man?" an elderly woman from the groom's family asked. Nico stared tiredly. How did he manage to get himself into situations like this? The two families stood and started arguing.

Nico slowly stood. He took a step back. He then took another and turned away to exit the church. Nico frowned as he saw a woman sitting in the back pew. Her legs were propped up on the pew.

The woman motioned for him to come over. Nico knew he was going to regret it, but he walked towards her. She smiled at him before looking back at the wedding.

"I do love weddings," the woman commented. She took a deep breath. "The smell of fighting is amazing."

"Who are you?" Nico asked. He was sure this woman was a goddess, but she was like nothing he had ever seen. She wore a jacket with the hood up. It obscured her face and hid most of her features.

"Names don't matter," the goddess said with a wave of her hand. She fixed the laces on her shoe. The goddess wore shorts and running shoes. It was like she was a runaway teenager.

Nico stood there for a moment. He could just walk away and risk making the goddess angry. He could help her and risk making the goddess angry. If Nico talked to her though, he could help Reyna.

"What do you want?" Nico asked.

"Honestly, you saved me the trouble of ruining this wedding," the goddess said. She stood and motioned for Nico to follow. He looked around and did. "You have no clue how tiresome it is boy. I do all this good work, and the prayers ruin it every time."

"Who are you really?" Nico questioned. The goddess turned on him and crossed her arms.

"You are a son of Hades. That is wonderful," the goddess commented. "You bring ruin wherever you go. I admire you."

"I really have no clue who you are. I'm just trying to help find my friend," Nico explained.

"The daughter of Bellona, correct?" the goddess questioned. Nico slowly nodded. The goddess smiled like a giddy child. "Oh, this is wonderful. I will help you find her."

Nico frowned. There had to be some kind of catch involved. Gods and goddesses didn't just offer their help. He glanced at the goddess and spoke, "You want to help me. Why?"

"Your friend brings ruin wherever she is. You do too. I think we can be all good friends," the goddess said. "I believe you asked my name. It is Ate."

"Ate?" Nico questioned.

"Ate," the goddess confirmed. Nico realized he was going to die because he laughed at a goddess' name. He did manage to stop himself, but it took all of his willpower. Nico tried to think of who Ate was.

"I assume you haven't heard of me," Ate said. She seemed to smiled. "That's fine. I was cast out of Olympus by my father. How was I suppose to know that my little joke would backfire?"

"Is it my fault that Zeus agreed that his next born son would become a powerful ruler? Is it my fault that Hera stalled the birth of the preferred Heracles to ensure that Eurystheus was born first?" Ate demanded. "The answer is no."

"Olympus was boring at the time," Ate continued. "I thought it was my duty to make it more interesting. I guess everyone is right when they say no good deed goes unpunished."

"You took the blame," Nico guessed. Ate nodded.

"Zeus kicked me out of Olympus. I'm not allowed to return!" Ate complained. "Good, old dad just had to add insult to injury. He had the Litaes follow me everywhere I go."

"Those jerks always undo the good work that I grace people with. They are just rude," Ate said. She looked at Nico. "You're looking for your friend, correct?"

"Do you know where she is?" Nico questioned. Ate studied him. She nodded after a moment. "Where is she?"

"At the moment," Ate began. She closed her eyes and started to hum. "Ouch. I believe she was just found. One slammed the hilt of their sword into her head. That is going to hurt."

"What's happening?" Nico demanded. "What is going on with Reyna?"

Ate opened her eyes and looked at Nico. She spoke, "Your friend has run afoul of a small cult. The remnants of a cult to be exact. They somehow managed to capture Lupa, and one of them has now found the daughter of Bellona. I think it will be fun to go to."

"You're coming with?" Nico questioned. That was really odd.

"I love fighting," Ate said. She smiled brightly and held out a hand. "Shall we go?"

Nico felt like he was walking straight into a trap. It was either that, or Ate would want a ridiculous payment in return for helping. She could also just be insane.

"Let's go," Nico said. He took Ate's hand. She smirked.

"Close your eyes," Ate ordered. Nico slowly did. He felt like he was spinning. When Nico opened his eyes, he saw that he was outside a building. The next thing he noticed was a cloaked figure standing over his best friend.

Nico didn't hesitate. He ran towards the figure and tackled them to the ground. Nico placed his sword to their neck. Beady eyes stared at him from under the shadows of a hood. The son of Hades covered their mouth before they could yell.

"Nico?" Reyna slowly asked. She sat up looking disoriented. Nico looked at her and saw the blood trickling down her face.

"Reyna," Nico greeted. He looked down at his captive and took off their hood. A woman glared at him. She had black hair and beady, brown eyes.

"Today is going to be fun," Ate commented as she walked to their side. She grabbed Reyna's face and examined the gash. "Honestly, you Romans are given helmets. You, if you wore yours, wouldn't have a concussion."

Nico looked back at Reyna. She was wearing black cargo pants and a black jacket. Reyna slowly returned his gaze. She spoke, "We need to help Lupa."

"She's in there?" Nico questioned. Reyna nodded once and looked at the woman. Nico glanced down at his captive and slowly removed his hand from her mouth.

"You!" the woman hissed as she looked at Reyna. "It was you and your two other friends."

"I thought we killed you," Reyna said calmly. "All of you."

"Some escaped," the woman taunted. "They are going to tear you apart when they find you."

"If you and your friends are lucky, I'll kill you now. If you're not, you'll be left for Lupa," Reyna threatened. She slowly stood. The woman glared but looked scared.

Ate studied the three of them. She smiled and spoke, "I think I have a plan."

"Who's this?" Reyna questioned.

"Ate. She's a goddess," Nico explained. Reyna gave him a look. She rubbed her forehead and leaned on a wall.

"Knock her out," Reyna ordered. Nico did as he was told. Ate smirked at them.

"We can just run in, or we can have more thought put into this plan," Ate said. She looked at Reyna. "If you're up for it."

"I just want to rescue Lupa," Reyna grumbled. She crossed her arms.

"You'll have to trust me," Ate said. Reyna hesitated and glanced at Nico. He thought about it before nodding. Reyna sighed and nodded as well.

Ate clapped her hands. She took off the woman's cloak. Nico stared as he saw the woman had been wearing a business suit like she had just come from a meeting.

"They are insane mortals who can see through the mist," Reyna muttered. She closed her eyes tiredly. Nico stood and walked towards her

"Your concussion looks pretty bad," Nico reported. He winced as he examined Reyna's head. He could see the blood started to dry from a deep gash in her head.

"Which makes our plan easier," Ate said. She put the robe on herself. "How do I look?"

"Like a creepy cultist," Reyna muttered after opening her eyes. Ate frowned and took off the cloak. She snapped her fingers. Rope appeared in her hands.

"We need to get inside. Since I am not wearing that hideous garb, you'll just be my prisoner. I found you after you knocked out this poor, innocent mortal and wanted to join the weirdos. While we distract the other cultist, the son of Hades will untie Lupa," Ate said.

"You better be right about her," Reyna whispered to Nico. He nodded. Reyna held her hands out in front of her for Ate. The goddess smirked and tied Reyna's wrist together.

"I'll be right behind you," Nico promised. Reyna nodded. Ate shoved her forward. Reyna stumbled and glared back at the goddess.

"Sorry," Ate said with a smile. "I'm just getting in character."

Reyna muttered a curse in Latin. Ate led her inside the building. Nico moved towards the door. He crouched by it and peeked inside.

The rest of the cultist turned to look at Reyna. There was five of them. One walked towards her and spoke, "You."

"I thought I left you underneath a burning pillar," Reyna commented. The cultist raised his fist. Ate stepped in front of Reyna and gave the cultist a fist bump. The action was so odd that everyone froze.

The cultist said something in Latin. Nico couldn't understand it, but he was sure he would get his mouth washed out with soap for repeating it. Nico turned his head to look around for Lupa.

The entire room was dimly lit. There was multiple boxes everywhere. Nico stared as he saw a ten foot cage. The son of Hades looked back at Ate.

"Speak English or Greek," Ate commanded. "It is so unbecoming to speak Latin. Yes, I know that your little cult relied on speaking Greek and was destroyed. Today is a new day though."

"Who are you?" the man demanded in Greek. Nico slowly edged around the multiple boxes in the room. He stared as he saw the cage.

Lupa was standing inside of the cage. There was not enough room to sit or lay down, and the cage was barely tall enough to fit Lupa inside. It had to be made of some goddess proof material because Lupa had yet to break through.

The part that made Nico the angriest was the muzzle that Lupa had. It was only there in an attempt to shame the goddess. Nico did his best to sneak over to the cage. Lupa watched him with one eye. Her red fur had golden ichor dried into it.

"I'll get you out of here," Nico whispered. He glanced back at Reyna. His best friend was watching the cultist.

"Really, I thought the downfall came because of your second in command," Ate continued. The man that had been speaking tilted his head. Nico guessed he was the leader. "He was so focused on his girlfriend. Was his head really in the game?"

"His head was in the game," a woman snapped. She turned on the leader. "I thought we had moved on from this."

Ate moved towards the woman. She grabbed her hand and examined it. "I love your nail polish. What kind is it?"

"What?" the woman demanded. Nico slowly moved to the lock of the cage. He pulled out the homemade kit that he had made for lockpicking. Nico went to work on picking the lock.

"Your nail polish," Ate repeated. "I love the color. I love it as much as Sharon loved your boyfriend."

"You what!" the woman yelled as she turned. Nico glanced back. Despite the fact that the cultist could clearly see him, her focus was on another cultist who had to be Sharon.

"Hey, what is he doing?" another cultist questioned. They went to point towards Nico. Reyna grabbed their arm and threw them over her shoulder.

The last one tackled Reyna into a wall. Nico winced as he heard Reyna's head crack against the wall. Nico unsheathed his sword and tried to cut the lock. His sword bounced off.

Nico turned back towards the cultists. The one that Reyna had taken down was standing. He turned towards Nico. The son of Hades walked towards him.

"A little help?" Nico questioned as he looked at Ate. The goddess shrugged. Nico glared.

"I can't crush stupid mortals," Ate said. She grunted. "Zeus can, but I can't. It's pretty stupid if you ask me."

Nico ignored the goddess and looked around for the key. He saw it hanging off of the leader's belt. The leader paid no attention to him. The two girls were yelling at each other and fighting

"What are you two doing?" the leader yelled. He tried to get in between them. Nico looked at the fifth man who was focused solely on him. He had to be three times the size of Nico. This wasn't going to be fun.

"What are you doing here?" the man demanded. Nico didn't answer. The man easily crossed the distance between them. He flipped Nico over his shoulder and pinned him before the son of Hades could react. "Are you involved in this animal trafficking?"

Nico stared at the man. He was watching Nico with his intense eyes. The son of Hades spoke, "Your friends kidnapped our wolf."

The man looked up. Nico caught the sight of a gun by his side. Holy Hades. He was a cop. Nico laid his head back and looked at the other cultist.

The two girls were still fighting. The leader was trying to pull them apart and having no luck. The other cult member had Reyna pinned. She wasn't moving and was probably unconscious. Ate was watching them calmly.

"How the hell did you get a permit for a wolf that big?" the cop whispered.

"Can we focus on helping my friend?" Nico asked. The cop nodded. He pulled Nico to his feet and dragged him towards the cult member who was watching Reyna intently.

"What are we doing?" the cultist asked. The cop let go of Nico and grabbed his gun. He aimed it at him.

"On your knees," the cop ordered. "You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent."

The cop never had time to finish his sentence. Ate slammed her elbow into the back of the cops head. Nico stared at her and spoke, "What are you doing?"

"I don't like cops," Ate answered. "They're annoying really."

"You said you couldn't hurt mortals," Nico said. Ate shrugged. She caught the cultist fist before he could punch Nico.

"Leave the son of Hades alone," Ate ordered. "I like him. I would also run because your two other friends are not going to stop fighting."

The cultist glared, but he didn't run away. Ate sighed and snapped the cultist's arm like a twig. He howled in pain. Ate shoved the cultist to the ground.

Nico stared at Ate. He could see the cruelness in the goddess' eyes. She was enjoying this. Nico forced himself to move to Reyna's side. He knelt by his best friend.

"Reyna, you have to wake up," Nico begged. He fumbled in his pockets but found nothing. Nico gritted his teeth and looked up at Ate. The goddess walked towards the three remaining cultist and snapped her fingers. They all instantly collapsed.

Ate grabbed the key from the leader. She hummed and walked towards Lupa's cage. Nico stood and walked towards the cage. He spoke, "Give me the key."

"You are so demanding," Ate commented. She tossed Nico the key. He caught it and turned towards the cage. Lupa was watching him with angry eyes.

Nico opened the lock on the cage. He took off the chains that were keeping the door locked. Lupa stepped out of the cage and looked at Nico. He slowly took the muzzle off.

"Lupa, what a surprise!" Ate exclaimed. She looked at Lupa and smiled. The Roman goddess growled angrily. It shook the room. Ate raised her hands and backed up.

Lupa walked towards Reyna. She growled lowly. Nico risked walking towards the goddess. He thought that the look on Lupa's face was because she was angry at Reyna, but he realized it was concern.

"Pup," Lupa muttered. She laid by Reyna's side. Nico knelt by Reyna.

Nico glanced at Lupa. He had no clue what to say to her. The goddess watched him in silence. Ate was the one who broke the silence, "We should go out for a drink."

"Leave," Lupa ordered as she glared at Ate.

"I am hurt," Ate said. She put a hand to her heart and looked offended. "I helped your little Roman. Do I even get a thanks?"

"You did this for your own gain," Lupa growled. "You bring destruction and ruin wherever you go. I will not have these two become affected by you."

"Fine," Ate huffed. She held her hands up and backed away. Lupa's watched her go. Nico glanced back down at Reyna. He silently pleaded for her to open her eyes.

Nico considered the problem in front of him. He wasn't strong enough to lift Reyna up and carry her. He was about to shadow travel when Lupa looked at him. She spoke, "Save your strength."

"You will wait for the cop to wake up," Lupa ordered. Nico nodded silently. "He will call for backup and an ambulance. He is a mortal who can see through the mist. You will explain what has happened here and make him an ally, understood?"

"Yes," Nico answered.

"Be aware of Ate," Lupa warned. "She only seeks to destroy. Her help has come with a price."

"I know," Nico muttered. He didn't regret it though. Ate had allowed him to get to Reyna. There was no telling what would have happened if he didn't arrive when he had. Nico sighed and forced himself to forget about the possible consequences of his actions.

Lupa stood and walked out of the building. Nico glanced back at Reyna. She was staring to stir. There was nothing for him to do now other than wait.


	11. Diana's Offer

"How do we keep getting stuck in these positions?" Reyna questioned. She looked at Nico. He looked exhausted and guilty. Nico was hanging upside down. "You need a haircut."

"You always say that," Nico groaned. Reyna did her best to shrug. She sighed sadly. With her concussion, it would be hard to pull herself up without getting nauseous.

Reyna really didn't remember much. There was the cult, and Nico took her to the hospital after that. There would be payback for that. They had told the officer about everything, and he thought they were crazy.

A laugh escaped her lips as she remembered Nico getting hit with a taser. Of course, Reyna had broken the cop's arm and threatened him with death if he ever touched Nico again. They were then forced to flee via shadow traveling.

"I'm glad you were able to get your clothes on before we left," Nico joked. Reyna grunted and closed her eyes. They had stumbled right out of the shadows and into a trap. Now, they were both hanging upside down.

"This has never happened to me before," Nico commented.

"Would I die if I vomited in this position?" Reyna questioned. She closed her eyes and swallowed painfully. Blood was rushing to her head which made her feel even sicker. The sound of footsteps is what made Reyna open her eyes.

She saw an arrow hit the rope that kept her suspended. Reyna barely had time to cover her head as she hit the ground. She slowly uncovered her head and looked up.

"It's been a long time Roman," a woman commented. She had silver eyes and brown hair. The woman wore a hunting vest made of animal skin and camouflage pants. "Who's your friend?"

"Leave him alone," Reyna ordered. She stood and stumbled. It took a moment for the world to stop spinning. Reyna grabbed her sword and cut the rope that held Nico up.

Nico groaned as he hit the ground. Reyna helped him stand. She turned back towards the woman who was studying her hatefully.

"Who is that?" Nico whispered. He grabbed Reyna's hand and slipped a pocket knife into it. The sentiment was nice, but it wouldn't help any.

"Bendis," Reyna answered. She looked at Nico. "Leave."

"No," Nico protested. Reyna glanced back at Bendis who just watched them. She glared at Nico. "That woman is a goddess. A Thracian goddess."

Nico tilted his head confused. Reyna gritted her teeth. She spoke, "Thracian gods and goddesses have mostly faded away. Those that haven't like to hunt prominent Roman demigods. You are not getting caught in the middle of this, so you need to leave."

The son of Hades shook his head. He was as stubborn as she was, but Reyna was not going to allow him to be hurt. She shoved him away.

"I have no problem leaving the Greek alive," Bendis commented. "Of course, that will be after I maim him. Then, I can turn my attention back to you."

"You are not going to touch her, or I will destroy you," Nico warned. Bendis laughed like his threat amused her.

"Nico, there is one place we can go," Reyna whispered. He was going to kill her. Nico nodded. Reyna swallowed painfully. "The Hunters of Artemis."

Before Nico could respond, an arrow flew past their faces. Nico grabbed Reyna's arm. To her surprise, he took off running instead of shadow traveling. Reyna ran behind him.

"I know where they are," Nico grumbled. He shoved Reyna into the shadows suddenly. She closed her eyes tightly until she felt herself hit solid ground. It took a few moments for the effects to subside.

Reyna slowly opened her eyes. She found ten arrows aimed at her and Nico. Great. Reyna spoke, "Wait."

Nico remained silent. He just watched the Hunters in anger. Reyna sat up and placed a hand to the back of her head. She saw Thalia Grace walk towards them.

"Lower your bows," Thalia ordered. The Hunters did as they were told. Thalia helped Reyna stand. The two had no time to talk after Orion's attack.

Thalia turned to help Nico stand. He just glared at her angrily and stood on his own. Nico shoved past Thalia and walked away from the camp.

"I'm sorry for dropping in," Reyna said. She closed her eyes for a moment. "We stumbled into a trap set by Bendis."

"Who?" Thalia questioned. She led Reyna towards a campfire. There was tent surrounding it. Hunters were sitting around and joking. Some glanced at Reyna.

"She's a Thracian goddess. The people back in Thrace mixed up with the Greeks back in the day, and some of the Greeks adopted the Thracian gods and goddesses. Bendis is an equivalent to Diana," Reyna explained.

"There are only a few Thracian gods and goddesses left. They hate the Romans because we left them without followers. There was a cult dedicated to them that the Romans destroyed. Bendis is dedicated to hunting down prominent Roman demigods," Reyna continued.

Thalia nodded. She sat Reyna down. Reyna closed her eyes tiredly. She sat there for a few moments before opening her eyes and looking for Nico. He was standing off by himself.

The Hunters completely ignored him. Reyna knew that they didn't like men. Some even hated them. Nico hated the Hunters. It was the perfect match.

"Diana counteracts Bendis. She would never dare mess with her," Reyna explained. Thalia sat by her. "Is Diana here?"

Thalia nodded as a twelve year old walked out of a tent. She was followed by a fourteen year old who had a smile on her face. Reyna could only guess it was a new recruit.

The goddess turned and walked towards her. There was something in her eyes. A small smile came to the goddess' face. It was the smile of a salesman.

"How are you praetor?" Diana questioned. She sat in front of the fire. Reyna watched her for a moment.

"We had to come here to escape Bendis," Reyna responded. She rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry if we have intruded on anything."

"You are fine," Diana promised. Her eyes moved to Nico. "The boy is a different story."

Reyna nodded. She had expected that. Reyna waited in silence for what she knew Diana was going to say.

"We would like to invite you to join the Hunters," Thalia began. Reyna glanced at her. "You would gain immortality. All that you have to do is swear off love."

"You don't have to join immediately," Diana added. "I know that you enjoy your praetorship. I am willing to allow you to finish out the year before you join. We could use a good Roman like you. I also know how men have hurt you."

Reyna's gaze instantly shot to Diana's face. She could feel her eyes narrowing into a glare. Diana watched her calmly. Reyna finally looked away.

"First, it was your father," Diana continued. "Then, you thought that you fell in love with Jason Grace. Instead of returning your feelings, he disappears and returns with a girlfriend. He showed her off in front of you."

Reyna looked away. She caught Nico's eyes. He was staring at her. Reyna instantly stood and went to his side. His face twisted into hatred.

"What are you doing?" Nico demanded. His hands were balled up into a fist. "You know how I feel about them!"

"Diana brought up the idea of me joining the Hunters," Reyna explained. "I never answered her."

"You're thinking about it," Nico accused. Reyna didn't respond. In fact, she looked away. Nico stared. "You are!"

"It doesn't seem like a bad idea," Reyna admitted. "It has its benefits."

Nico stared at her. He was shaking from rage. Reyna spoke, "Nico, she's just offering."

"You don't understand!" Nico yelled suddenly. He turned towards the shadows. Reyna tried to grab his arm.

"I don't understand," Reyna said quickly. "You never told me what happened to Bianca. I know she was a Hunter, but I respected you enough to wait for you to talk to me about her."

"Don't say her name," Nico yelled. Reyna realized they had caught the attention of the Hunters.

"Nico," Reyna began. Nico glared at her angrily. "You shouldn't shadow travel anymore. Just stop and relax."

"I already lost one sister to the Hunters," Nico snapped. "I don't need to lose anyone."

Reyna stared as Nico disappeared into the shadows. She stood there for a few moments until Thalia placed a hand to her shoulder.

"You should get some rest," Thalia whispered. Reyna didn't respond. She felt the grip on her shoulder tighten. "We can get you some food."

Reyna didn't protest. She was still in shock. Thalia led her back towards Diana. Reyna sat down and looked at the goddess.

"You don't have to accept the offer now," Diana began. "It's always open."

"Thank you," Reyna muttered. She stared into fire. Reyna just wanted to find Nico and talk to him.

"How did Bendis attack you?" Diana questioned. Reyna told her the story as she stared into the fire. She just wanted to find Nico. Reyna sighed and closed her eyes as she realized how badly she had screwed up.


	12. Devil's Sinkhole

**Thank you for all of the follows, favorites and reviews.**

 **To the guest who suggested a sick Reyna and nurse Nico, that chapter is coming soon. If anyone else has any other suggestions or requests, I would love to hear them.**

* * *

Reyna groaned as she felt a buzz in her pocket. She slowly moved her right hand to answer her phone. It was a disposable one that she was going to throw away after her vacation was over. Reyna spoke, "Who is it?"

"It's Annabeth," the voice on the other end answered. "Where are you?"

"Just hanging around," Reyna muttered. She fixed her bluetooth before looking down. Reyna lowered herself and gritted her teeth. "Has anyone seen Nico?"

"We think he went to the Underworld," Annabeth responded. Reyna grunted. She had been expecting it. Nico had disappeared ever since he fled from the Hunter's camp. No one had seen him for two days.

"Anything else?" Reyna questioned. She grabbed onto another piece of the cavern wall. Reyna silently continued to climb down.

"Where are you?" Annabeth asked. Reyna didn't respond for a few moments. She looked down to see she only had twenty more feet to climb down. Her eyes focused on the standard in the middle of a pile of skeletons.

"Texas," Reyna answered. She focused on climbing down the rest of the cavern wall. When she reached the bottom, she jumped down. "I'm going to find Nico."

"How?" Annabeth questioned. She sounded suspicious. Reyna didn't respond as she sighed tiredly. "Reyna."

"I'm going to the Underworld," Reyna responded. She leaned on the cavern wall. Her arms burned from how much she had climbed. She still needed to climb back up.

"You're what?" Annabeth demanded. "Is that why you stole Blackjack?"

"Borrowed," Reyna corrected. She shined her flashlight through the dark cavern. "I plan on returning him."

"Percy was throwing a fit," Annabeth said. "How are you even going to get into the Underworld?"

Reyna took a few moments to steady her breathing. She looked around at the skeletons. They all wore older armor, but it would still do. All of them had Imperial Gold weapons.

"Pluto had a small cohort back in the day. It was made up of his children and those who had won his respect. They were highly skilled and respected," Reyna explained. She crouched down tiredly.

"Pluto angered Neptune one day. Pluto was complaining about how Neptune's kids were always screwing up, and they were the reason there was so many wars," Reyna continued.

"Poseidon didn't take kindly to that," Annabeth guessed. She sounded distracted. "I don't know when you'll get Blackjack back."

"Percy bothering you?" Reyna asked. The only response she received was a noise that implied Annabeth's mouth was busy. Reyna rolled her eyes and looked around the sinkhole she was in.

It was called the Devil's sinkhole purely because Pluto's children had been lost in it. No one really knew that. Native Americans knew that the site was sacred, but they didn't know the exact reason.

Reyna looked at the standard. It was black and had an eagle in the middle. The standard itself was tattered and dusty. Reyna studied it.

"Are you still there?" Annabeth asked. She sounded less busy. Reyna grunted tiredly.

"Pluto's cohort had gone out on a mission. Neptune made an earthquake below them that made the world's largest sinkhole," Reyna explained. "If I can retrieve the standard, I can deliver it to Pluto and talk to Nico."

"Do you think it will work?" Annabeth questioned. Reyna glanced up. She closed her eyes tiredly.

"I hope," Reyna answered. She carefully stepped over a skeleton and moved closer to the standard. "Can you do me a favor and send a message to Frank? There are weapons and armor here that we can collect."

"I will," Annabeth promised. "How much more vacation time do you have?"

Reyna focused on stepping over another skeleton. She knelt by the standard and grabbed it. Reyna spoke, "I have time left. Why?"

"Piper and I want to have a girl's night out, and we wanted to invite you," Annabeth replied. Reyna gently adjusted her grip on the standard. She pulled it out of the skeleton's grasp. A creaking sound caught her attention.

Reyna tensed. She heard a crack below her. Reyna had no time to react as the ground below her disappeared.

* * *

"Reyna, are you there?" a voice demanded. Reyna's eyes slowly opened. Her ears were ringing. It took her a few moments to get her bearings. She couldn't see anything.

"I hear you," Reyna answered painfully. She rolled onto her back and managed to grab her flashlight. Her vision was blurry. Reyna felt nauseous. "Annabeth?"

"I'm here," Annabeth promised. She sounded concerned. "What happened?"

Reyna didn't answer. She closed her eyes tightly. The ringing in her ears wasn't going away. Reyna tried to move her leg, but pain shot through her ankle.

"I think I hurt my ankle," Reyna began. She took a few moments before she felt her ankle. It was possibly sprained, but she would live. That's when an idea dawned. "I think it's broken."

Reyna sat up. The blurriness in her vision became even worse. She knew that she had aggravated her concussion. Reyna swept her flashlight across the cavern.

"I'll get you help," Annabeth promised. She seemed to buy Reyna's lie. "You just need to relax."

"I hate vacations," Reyna muttered. "This is why I never take any."

"You broke your ankle last time you were on a vacation?" Annabeth asked. She was trying to keep her voice calm. Reyna guessed it was because Annabeth had no clue how to get her out of there. Reyna already knew that she was going to climb out.

"Destroyed a building," Reyna corrected. She scooted towards the cavern wall and pulled herself up. Reyna slowly put pressure on her injured ankle and was happy to find that it barely hurt.

Reyna looked up and took a step forward only for pain to spike in her head. Climbing was going to be dangerous with her concussion. Of course, she would still do it.

"I have an idea. You just need to relax," Annabeth ordered. She hung up before Reyna could respond. Wonderful. Reyna looked around.

Some of the skeletons had been broken by the fall. Whoops. Reyna looked down. She was standing on some sort of platform. It was made of old wood. As long as she didn't go jumping up and down, the wood would hold.

Since Reyna had nothing better to do while she waited, she started to gather the weapons from the skeletons. Reyna noted that most had a gladius. They also wore cavalry helmets.

Reyna frowned. She thought horses didn't liked children of Pluto. That brought up the thought of undead horses being ridden by children of Pluto. Reyna laughed and realized that she needed a better sense of humor.

After the weapons were sorted, Reyna moved on to the armor that skeletons wore. There was plenty of dents and breaks, but it was fixable. That was all that mattered. As she worked, Reyna tried to find identifying marks on the skeletons, but there wasn't any.

Reyna practically had a heart attack as she heard someone call her name. She turned to look at an Iris message. Nico was staring at her. Reyna moved the flashlight, so he could see her.

"Annabeth told me you were in trouble," Nico began. It was hard to see his face because of the lack of light. The guilt in his voice was evident.

"I'm stuck," Reyna lied. "I was trying to retrieve a standard, so I could talk to you."

"I don't want to talk," Nico grumbled.

"Look," Reyna began. "I know that you're still mad about me talking to Diana. I shouldn't have done it. I am sorry."

"You don't get it though," Nico grumbled.

"What do I not get?" Reyna asked calmly. She gripped her flashlight.

"Bianca just left me to join the Hunters of Artemis which she only knew a little about. My older sister left me at Camp Half-Blood with strangers! You don't understand how that is," Nico said angrily. Reyna could imagine he was shaking from rage.

"You're right," Reyna began. "I don't understand what it's like for my older sister to leave me for some group that she had just met and only knew a little about. I don't understand what its like for my older sister to leave me at some camp that is dedicated to protecting demigods from monsters."

"But," Reyna continued. She couldn't keep the anger out of her voice. "I do understand what it is like for my older sister to leave me for a group that she didn't even know how to find. I understand what it's like for my older sister to just leave me on the damn streets."

Nico didn't respond. Reyna put her flashlight back in on its holder. She had hoped that Annabeth would get in contact with Nico, and he would call her. This wasn't how she imagined it going though.

"Where are you at?" Nico asked after a moment.

"It doesn't matter," Reyna answered. She grabbed the climbing axes that were in her backpack. Reyna had hoped not to use them because she was unsure of how the wall would react.

"Reyna, I'm sorry," Nico muttered after a moment. "I just lost my temper."

Reyna hesitated. She knew how she reacted when she lost her temper. Reyna spoke, "It's okay, I'm sorry for talking to Diana."

Nico studied her. He frowned and spoke, "Why are you standing on a broken ankle?"

"I lied," Reyna answered. "I figured Annabeth would call you, and you would Iris message me."

"Where are you at?" Nico questioned.

"Devil's sinkhole," Reyna answered. She winced in pain as she looked up. "I was going to climb, but everything is starting to spin a little."

"I'm coming," Nico promised. He ended the Iris message. Reyna leaned against the cavern wall. She placed her climbing axes into her backpack. Reyna closed her eyes tightly.

After a minute, Reyna felt the temperature drop. She looked up to see Nico fall in front of her. Reyna helped him up but heard a crack. The ground fell out from under them.

Reyna hit the water hard. The cold shocked her more than anything. She swam up to the surface and spat water out.

"Nico," Reyna said. She couldn't see anything. Reyna jumped as Nico grabbed her arm. She looked in the direction that she hoped he was. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Nico answered. "Why is it so cold?"

"Don't know," Reyna answered. She shivered. Reyna tried to grab her flashlight but realized it was at the bottom of the water. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Nico asked. He sounded like he was shivering.

"Break the wood," Reyna answered. She looked up. "You weight as much as a small dog."

"Small dog?" Nico demanded. Reyna laughed and winced. "Can you shadow travel out of here."

"I can," Nico confirmed. "Do you know the worst part about this?"

"What is it?" Reyna questioned. Nico wrapped his arm around her as he tried to hug her the best he could. Reyna smiled at him. Nico motioned to the weapons that were floating near them.

"You had just finished organizing all of these. Now, you have to gather them all up again," Nico teased. Reyna glared at him. "I might help you, but on the other hand, you lied to me."

"Let's go," Reyna muttered. "I'm taking you out to dinner."

Nico smiled and didn't argue. Reyna relaxed slightly and shivered again. Nico spoke, "Which restaurant?"

"Don't know," Reyna responded. She shivered once again. Nico seemed to take a hint, and he gripped her hand. Reyna closed her eyes as they shadow traveled.


	13. The Flu

**Thank you to a guest for suggesting this chapter. I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Nico only waited a minute till he walked into Reyna's house. She usually answered within thirty seconds, or Aurum and Argentum would start clawing at the door. None of that happened, so Nico needed to investigate.

"Reyna!" Nico called. He could see paperwork spread out on a table near the couch. There was a half eaten sandwich on the table along with an unopened soda. Fear and paranoia tore through Nico.

Nico closed the front door and unsheathed his sword. He looked around and slowly walked towards Reyna's room. Nico opened the door to Reyna's room and waited for a few moments. He stepped inside.

His attention moved to Reyna. She was curled up on her side. Despite the blanket that she had wrapped around herself, Reyna was clearly shivering.

Nico ran to Reyna's side. His first thought was that Reyna had been poisoned. He placed a hand to her shoulder about to shadow travel to Camp Half-Blood and Will. That was when he realized that the praetor was nowhere near death.

"Are you awake?" Nico whispered. Reyna didn't respond. Her bangs were matted to her head from how much she was sweating. Nico stood there unsure of what to do.

Nico remembered that Reyna had been complaining about a sore throat a few days before. That should have tipped Nico off. Reyna never complained about being sick. He could only guess there was something worse that was wrong with her.

If there was one thing Nico knew, it was that Reyna did not get sick often. She just had a naturally strong immune system. When Reyna did get sick though, it was bad.

Reyna had a coughing attack, and her eyes slowly opened. She looked around and focused on Nico. Reyna spoke, "What time is it?"

"Nine in the morning," Nico answered. Reyna tried to sit up. Nico pushed her back down and sat on her chest.

"Get off," Reyna groaned. She really had to be sick if she wasn't just shoving Nico off of her. Nico took the time to examine Reyna.

Reyna was wearing a purple shirt and white shorts. Her hair was still in a braid. It seemed like the sickness had hit her the night before. Nico looked behind him and saw that a black shirt and black shorts were on the bed.

Reyna always took two showers. One was in the morning, and the other was right before she went to bed. Reyna wore clothes to bed in case there was an attack on the camp. There was no way she would look undignified by rushing to a midnight Senate meeting in pajamas.

"How do you feel?" Nico questioned. Reyna shivered again and didn't answer. Nico watched her concerned.

"I think I have the flu," Reyna said. Another cough wracked her body. Nico moved off of Reyna's chest and sat by her. "It's been going around."

"I'm playing nurse," Nico decided. Reyna groaned and tried to sit up once again. Nico wrapped an arm around her and laid her back on the bed. She didn't even possess the strength to fight him.

Nico grabbed handcuffs that Reyna had underneath her bed. Reyna was an extremely paranoid person. It was absolutely terrifying. Nico grabbed his best friend's wrist and cuffed it to the bed post.

It seemed extreme, but Nico knew his friend too well. As soon as he turned his back, Reyna would try to get out of bed. This would keep her grounded for a few minutes.

"This is for your own good," Nico said. He saw Reyna's left hand slowly move to her pillow. Nico pinned her arm and grabbed the dagger under her pillow. "Stabbing does not help the situation."

Reyna grabbed Nico's arm before he could walk away. She looked up at him and spoke in a raspy voice, "Drink?"

"Of course," Nico answered. He rubbed her back gently. "Do you want anything to eat?"

"I feel like I'm going to vomit," Reyna answered. She shivered again. "I need the notebook on my table."

"No paperwork," Nico ordered. Reyna shook her head. She buried her face into the pillow. After a few moments, Reyna looked up at him.

"It's a letter to Hylla," Reyna explained. Nico nodded after a moment. He walked out of the room. Nico really didn't know how to deal with the flu. He never had it before.

Nico opened Reyna's fridge. He saw juice and cans of soda. Nico didn't want to know who Reyna had killed to get the soda. He grabbed the juice.

Nico closed the fridge and walked towards the table. He grabbed the notebook. Nico walked back into Reyna's room.

Reyna was laying on the floor. Her right hand still had the cuff on it. Nico sighed and placed the items down. He helped Reyna to her feet and back on the bed. His best friend slowly looked at him.

"Did you try to get up?" Nico questioned.

"No," Reyna lied. She laid her head on Nico's chest. He rubbed her back and laid her on the bed. Reyna curled up tiredly and pulled Nico close.

Even though she was sick, Reyna had an iron grip. She was still shaking miserably. Nico tried to twist out of her grip. It didn't work. After a moment, Nico was able to escape because Reyna was no longer interested in using him as a teddy bear.

"You're burning up," Nico commented as he touched Reyna's head. Aurum moved to his side and licked Reyna's face. She groaned and mumbled something.

"It's freezing," Reyna mumbled in a barely audible voice. She shivered once again. Nico grabbed her blanket which had fallen to the floor when she had stood.

Aurum laid next to Reyna. His back was against hers. Argentum moved to lay near Reyna's other side. She laid her head against Argentum's back. Nico smiled and laid the blanket over them.

"Is there no room for me?" Nico teased. Reyna mumbled something in Spanish. Nico raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What was that?"

"Letter," Reyna mumbled in English before she switched back to Spanish. She looked ready to fall asleep. Nico grabbed the notebook and carefully tore the paper out.

Nico really tried to not look at the paper. He didn't want to invade Reyna's privacy. Then, he saw Bianca's name. Nico glanced at Reyna and placed the notebook down. He waited.

Even though she was sick, Reyna followed her nightly ritual. She would start out on her back before turning on her right side. Reyna then usually turned on her left side, or she would just lay on her stomach. One hand would go under the pillow to grip her dagger.

It only took three minutes for Reyna to fully fall asleep. She looked peaceful. Nico instantly went back to the letter and grabbed it.

"I went to the Devil's sinkhole," Nico read. He skipped a few sentences ahead. "Nico was mad because I listened to Diana's offer. He lost his sister Bianca after she joined the Hunters."

Nico forced himself to look up. He shouldn't be invading Reyna's privacy. Nico decided to look at the bottom of the letter just to see if Reyna had finished the letter. If she didn't, he would add a note telling Hylla what had happened.

"I have Nico's surprise party all planned," Nico read. His eyes widened. How did Reyna know? She would have had to kill someone to get her hands on the date of his birthday. Nico looked at the next sentence which was only half of a sentence.

Nico grabbed a pen. He placed the paper down on the bedside table. Nico spoke as he wrote, "Hylla, this is Nico. Reyna is dealing with the flu, so I am finishing this letter for her. I'll make sure she sends you an Iris message when she is feeling better."

The son of Hades looked at Reyna. She was completely asleep. Nico folded up the letter and walked out of the room. He left Reyna's house and walked towards Frank's.

Before he could knock on the door, it opened. Hazel stared at him before smiling and hugging him tightly. Nico hugged her back.

"Hey Nico," Frank greeted as he stepped out of his house. "Has Reyna given you an invite to the ball?"

"No," Nico answered. He had just assumed that a Greek wouldn't be allowed to attend. "When is it?"

"Next week," Hazel answered. Nico nodded and forced himself to focus. He gripped the letter.

"Reyna is sick," Nico said. "She has the flu."

Frank nodded like he expected it. He looked concerned. Frank spoke, "Can you make sure she rests?"

"I will," Nico promised. He held the piece of paper up. "I need to deliver this to Hylla."

Frank whistled. Nico jumped as something landed on his arm. It was an eagle that had a one eye missing. The eagle looked terrifying mostly because it had blood around its beak.

"Amazons. Queen Hylla," Frank said to the eagle. He pulled out a treat from his pocket and tossed it to the eagle. It grabbed it with its beak and ate it.

The eagle grabbed the letter from Nico's hand and took off. Nico needed a messenger eagle. He looked at Hazel and Frank.

"Do you guys know what it happening two weeks from now?" Nico questioned. Hazel frowned and shook her head. They didn't seem to know. Nico barely stopped from smiling. They had no clue his birthday was approaching.

"I better get back to Reyna," Nico said. Hazel nodded.

"I'll stop by after I inform the Senate," Frank promised. "My grandma taught me a recipe that works great with the flu."

Frank looked down as he seemed to remember his grandma. Hazel squeezed his arm. Frank cleared his throat and nodded to Nico. The son of Hades nodded back and turned away.

Nico walked back into Reyna's house. He heard Aurum whimper. Nico was in Reyna's room within two seconds. He looked around.

Reyna was still laying on her stomach, but she was muttering words in Spanish. It only took Nico a few moments to realize she was having a nightmare. He moved to Reyna's side and gently touched her arm.

"Wake up," Nico whispered. He gently shook his friend's shoulder. Reyna tensed and turned on her side. Aurum laid his head on Reyna's side. He whimpered again.

"You need help," Nico commented. He rubbed Aurum's head to try and calm him down. Argentum was staring down at Reyna. If dogs could look concerned, these two did.

Nico gently shook Reyna's shoulder. He felt a hand grab his shirt, and Nico was thrown on top of Argentum. The dog yelped.

Nico gasped as he felt a dagger against his neck. He spoke, "It's me! Reyna, it's Nico."

Reyna looked down at him in confusion. She closed her eyes tightly and reopened them. Reyna didn't remove the dagger from Nico's neck. She looked at the handcuff before breaking it.

"Nico?" Reyna slowly questioned. She dug the dagger into his neck as if she was scared he wasn't real. Nico was about to nod, but he realized how bad of an idea that was.

"I'm here," Nico promised. Reyna removed the dagger. She laid on her bed and looked everywhere but Nico's face. The son of Hades gently touched her tense arms. "I'm sorry about the handcuffs, but I knew you would get up."

"It's fine," Reyna answered. She looked shaken up. Nico stood and grabbed the juice he had sat down. He handed it to Reyna.

Reyna slowly grabbed it. She took a small sip and swallowed painfully. Reyna wiped her forehead. Nico quietly waited for her to speak.

Reyna gently rubbed Argentum's back and spoke in Latin. Nico spoke, "I sent the letter to Hylla. Frank said he had a soup recipe for you."

"Frank makes good food," Reyna mumbled. She looked absolutely exhausted. Reyna seemed to have gotten over her nightmare, or she had just shoved it aside to avoid thinking about it.

"Maybe, you should lay down," Nico suggested. Reyna shook her head. Nico stood and grabbed a blanket. "Come on."

Reyna looked up in confusion. She slowly stood and stumbled. Nico quickly steadied her. He helped her walk to the living room.

Nico sat Reyna down on the couch. He wrapped the blanket around her and sat by her. Reyna leaned on him tiredly.

"What do you want to watch?" Nico questioned. He could feel Reyna shrug. Nico smiled and gently pulled away. He stood and walked towards the DVD player that was near a small television.

Nico grabbed a random DVD and shoved it in. He turned the television on and fumbled with it for a few moments. Nico walked back towards Reyna and sat by her. Reyna leaned on him again.

"Why did you have handcuffs?" Reyna questioned in a tired voice.

"I knew you would try to get up. If I turned my back, you would have slipped out of the house without me knowing," Nico explained. He wrapped an arm around Reyna.

"You should have put the handcuff on in the middle of the bed," Reyna mumbled. She used the blanket to cover her mouth and sneeze. Reyna leaned on Nico again and closed her eyes again. Nico rubbed her back.

Reyna was asleep before Nico could even turn the movie on. He made himself more comfortable and turned the movie on. Nico glanced at Reyna and smiled at her. He held his best friend close and watched the movie.


	14. The Demigod Ball

Nico was impressed, yet he was also disappointed. When he heard the word ball, he expected everyone to be dressed up nicely. Romans didn't think that. Everyone was wearing a suit of armor.

The retired members of the legion all wore togas. They had varying colors though. Hazel had tried to explain what the different colors meant, but she seemed as lost at him.

They were outside. A dance floor had been set up, but everyone was busy talking. Lares were serving everyone. They carried trays of food and wine. The Lares seemed to know if someone was underage.

Nico looked around for Reyna. She was not entirely over the flu, but she had been working herself hard to get everything together for the ball. Nico frowned as he didn't see his best friend.

"Frank isn't here," Hazel commented. She was awkwardly wearing her own armor. Nico was wearing normal clothes. Only a few other people were as well. They were guests of the Romans.

"Did something else happen?" Nico questioned. Hazel shrugged. Nico heard footsteps and turned his head.

"Nico!" Isabella greeted. She was wearing her old armor which only had a few differences from the armor Hazel was wearing. Isabella's toga was blue with a red stripe in the middle.

Blue meant she had been in the first cohort. Nico was sure that the red stripe represented eleven years of service. There was too many colors to keep straight. Two men flanked Isabella.

The one on Isabella's left was leaning heavily on a cane despite the fact that he only looked forty. His toga was blue with a green stripe that had red crosses on it. Nico had no clue what the was suppose to mean.

The other one had a scarred face. He wore military dog tags. His toga was blue with a yellow stripe. He examined them with a look of indifference.

"Wilbert," Isabella began turning the man with military dog tags. Nico bit his tongue to keep himself from laughing. "Have you seen anyone else?"

"No one worth talking to," Wilbert grunted. He yelped as the other man hit him over the head with the cane. "What was that for?"

"My granddaughter is around here somewhere. She is worth talking to," the man grumbled. Hazel looked at Nico and smiled. He returned it.

"Who is your granddaughter?" Hazel questioned. She smiled at the man. "I can help you find her."

"Gwendolyn," the man answered. Hazel's smile brightened. "Do you know her?"

"She was the centurion of my cohort," Hazel answered. She gently grabbed his arm. "I'll show you where she is."

Nico watched the two walk away. He suppressed a smile at the sight. Nico looked back at Isabella who was studying him critically.

"Where is Reyna? I haven't seen her all day," Isabella said. Nico glanced around quickly. He hoped to see his best friend, but she was nowhere in sight.

"I don't know," Nico answered. He looked around once again. "I haven't really seen her since last week."

Wilbert studied Nico. He was still rubbing his head. Suddenly, Wilbert glared at Nico and walked away. He was muttering something about dirty barbarians.

"I'm sorry about him," Isabella said. "A lot of us old timers do not want to change our ways."

Nico nodded. He felt slightly awkward talking to Reyna's grandma. He had no clue what to talk about. Isabella was studying him with a curious look.

"You two are really good friends," Isabella stated. Nico nodded. Isabella looked like she wanted him to elaborate.

"We were forced to work together to return the Athena Parthenos. Along the way, we just became really good friends," Nico explained after a few moments of silence. He thought about what to say.

Nico was spared from awkward conversation as they heard the clanging of glass. He turned towards the noise. Nico smiled as he saw Reyna and Frank.

Both of them were wearing armor and their purple cloaks. Reyna was holding the glass. She waited for everyone to go silent which didn't take long.

"First, I want to thank everyone for attending this celebration. I know that you are all busy enjoying the benefits of retirement," Reyna began. Her voice was still hoarse. She glanced at Frank who smiled at the crowd.

"We are here today to celebrate everyone's service to the legion," Frank continued. Nico forced himself to zone out. He looked at Reyna. She seemed like she wanted to go back home.

There was bags under her eyes. It looked like she was trying to keep from coughing in the middle of Frank's speech. Reyna met Nico's eyes and smiled slightly.

"You allowed me to call my granddaughter a hard ass," Isabella whispered in his ear. Nico looked at her and smiled slightly.

"Surprise," Nico whispered back. Isabella shook her head and listened to the rest of the speech. Nico didn't pay attention because he was too concerned about Reyna.

Nico saw everyone raise their glass to the speech. He stood there awkwardly since he didn't have a glass. Nico watched Reyna talk to a few former members of the legion. She finally made her way over to them.

"Reyna," Isabella greeted. She hugged Reyna tightly. "You didn't tell me you were a praetor."

"I just wanted it to be a surprise," Reyna joked. She looked at Nico tiredly. It was clear that Reyna was completely exhausted.

Isabella examined Reyna. She smiled and spoke, "You have to tell me all about your time here."

Reyna glanced at Nico. He smiled and gave her a small nod. Reyna returned it with a tired smile. She led her grandmother away.

Nico walked around and tried to find Hazel. He finally spotted her talking to Dakota. Nico walked towards the two.

"Hey Nico," Dakota greeted. He was drinking his kool-aid. A woman stood next to him drinking wine. "This is my mom."

Nico greeted Dakota's mom. After that, he stayed in the background and listened to everyone's conversation. He spotted Reyna talking to former legionaries. Frank was doing the same.

In Nico's opinion, the party was pretty tame. That was a shame because he expected some fights. Nico sighed and realized how boring his day was going to be. Then, he heard yelling.

His attention moved towards the punch table. Two old men were standing on opposite ends. One had a cane, and the other had a walker. Nico walked towards it and squeezed in with the crowd.

"Your bastard child betrayed us all!" the old man with the walker spat. The one with the cane snarled and almost lost his dentures.

"You will never talk about my grandson like that again," the old man with the cane sneered.

"There is no reason to talk about him because he's dead," the other sneered. The entire crowd seemed to anticipate a fight. Nico didn't know how to feel about it. The two old men might have a heart attack from the excitement.

"You shut your mouth Benson!" the old man with the cane spat. Benson spat at him.

"I'll say what I want Tucker. What are you going to do? Beat me with your cane?" Benson demanded. He raised his walker threateningly.

"Enough!" Reyna yelled as she walked into the middle of the crowd. She glared at the two men. "What are you two doing?"

"That old bastard is insulting my son," a man answered. He stepped out of the line. The crowd instantly fell silent and stared at him. Reyna watched the man.

"Back in line," Reyna said in a low voice, but everyone could still hear her. "You don't need to add to this fight. Just get back in line."

"I'm tired of people slandering my son's name," the man hissed. He gripped Tucker's shoulder.

"He slandered his own name," a woman yelled from the other side of the crowd. Frank moved to Reyna's side. Reyna snapped something in Latin, and Frank turned towards Benson as if he was getting ready to stop the old man from charging.

"That is enough from all of you!" Reyna yelled. "You are all suppose to be Romans! What kind of example is this setting for your children? This is disgraceful!"

"Benson started it," Tucker snapped. "Are you just going to ignore that praetor?"

"She did have many issues with my son," the man hissed. "She stole his praetorship."

"The issues between Octavian and I do not matter," Reyna said. It was clear that she was losing her voice. "Just walk away."

The man looked around. He seemed to judge the crowd. The man looked back at Reyna and spoke, "No."

The crowd fell completely silent. Nico glanced at Isabella who was pushing her way to the front of the crowd. A woman moved to the man's side, and she was whispering to him. A fight was on the horizon.

"Nicholas, I am sorry for what happened to Octavian. There is no reason for fighting though. Benson should not have mentioned anything, but you must be the bigger man. Please walk away," Reyna said. She stepped closer to the man.

Nicholas looked down. He thought for a moment before finally nodded. Before anyone could react, Nicholas punched Reyna hard in the face.

It seemed like a real fight was going to break out. A growl cut through the air as everyone moved forward. That growl caused everyone to freeze.

"What is this?" Lupa growled. The goddess walked through the crowd. Everyone quickly parted for her. Nicholas gulped as he stepped back. Lupa looked around at the scene.

"I am ashamed of all of you. Get out of my sight. This party is over," Lupa growled. The entire crowd slowly departed. Nicholas seemed to disappear with Tucker.

Isabella pushed past the crowd and knelt by Reyna. She spoke, "Tilt your head back. It's a pain to get blood off of armor."

Nico quickly moved to Reyna's side. She looked pissed. Frank was kneeling by them.

"I hate this stupid ball," Reyna muttered angrily. "It's been nothing but a pain in my ass."

"It went better than last time. One of the praetors got stabbed. The one before that ended with a fire," Isabella said. She examined Reyna's face and tried to stop the bleeding.

Lupa walked back towards them. She towered over them. Lupa spoke, "I hate this ball. Jupiter always insists that we have it. You handled it well praetor."

Reyna nodded the best she could. Lupa studied them and walked away. Reyna sighed and stared at the sky.

"This sucks," Reyna muttered.

"It was fun while it lasted," Nico commented.

"It wasn't as fun as the riot fifteen years ago," Isabella said. It was impossible to tell if she was joking or not. Isabella pulled Reyna to her feet.

"I'm fine," Reyna muttered. She looked at Nico. "There is one bright side."

"What is it?" Nico questioned. Reyna smirked and winced as Isabella popped her nose back into place. Fresh blood trickled from her nose. Reyna put a hand to her nose.

Frank handed Reyna a towel. She placed it to her nose and closed her eyes. Reyna finally opened her eyes and looked at Nico. She spoke, "Now, I can focus on your birthday."

Nico groaned inwardly. He didn't want to do anything for his birthday. Reyna winked at him before she allowed Isabella to lead her away.

"Your birthday is coming up?" Frank questioned. Nico didn't answer. He just walked after Reyna. If she did anything for his birthday, he would kill her.


	15. Nico's Birthday

"Is everything ready?" Reyna questioned as she looked at the Iris message in front of her. It took all of her willpower not to shiver. Rain was pouring relentlessly, and she was completely soaked. Reyna had taken off her jacket to protect the birthday gift in her arms.

"Where are you?" Annabeth questioned. Reyna didn't answer for a few moments. She looked around at her surroundings. Reyna stood in an alleyway.

Monster dust covered the walls, and it had been covering her. The rain had mostly washed it away. The cold from the rain had also numbed her shoulder wound.

"I don't know," Reyna answered. She knew that her shoulder was covered in blood. Some of it wasn't hers. Annabeth seemed to study her.

"What happened to you?" Annabeth questioned. She sounded concerned.

"Well," Reyna began. She shivered and took a moment to shift the bundle in her arms. "I came here to get a gift for Nico. It didn't go so well."

"I'll come get you," Annabeth decided. Reyna shook her head. She took a moment for her teeth to stop chattering. Annabeth's look of concern deepened.

"I need you to keep the party together. Please," Reyna begged. Annabeth looked hesitant.

"You still need a way to get here," Annabeth said. Reyna didn't respond. She sat against the wall absolutely freezing. Annabeth frowned. "Where are you at?"

"I'll be fine," Reyna protested. Another shiver wracked her body. She could feel Annabeth's eyes glaring into her.

"Reyna, you are going to tell me where you are, and I am coming to get you. If you don't, I will tell Nico about the party," Annabeth threatened.

"That's a low blow," Reyna muttered. She closed her eyes tightly and mumbled the address of the store to her right. Reyna was just trying to stay warm at that point. There was no way anyone would let her inside a store.

Annabeth ended the Iris message without another word. Reyna shifted the bundle in her arms. Her shoulder was killing her from trying to hold it.

Reyna laid her head back. She closed her eyes. Reyna didn't even realize she had fallen asleep until someone grabbed her arm. Her eyes snapped open.

"Come on," Annabeth said gently. She helped Reyna stand and led her to a car. Reyna shivered miserably and looked down at her soaked jacket. The package was still bundled up. Annabeth handed her a warm jacket.

"What is that?" Annabeth questioned. Reyna slowly handed her the bundle. With shaking hands, she put the jacket on. Annabeth slowly gave her the bundle back.

"Birthday gift," Reyna answered with a shiver. Her teeth were chattering even worse than before. They both sat in the car. Annabeth turned on the heater. Reyna laid her head against the window.

"Thank you," Reyna whispered. She forced her eyes to stay open. After a moment, she shifted the bundle in her arms.

Reyna could feel herself drifting in and out of consciousness. She also heard Annabeth talking, but the words weren't registering. Reyna looked at the bundle in her arms. It shifted.

"Why is your bundle moving?" Annabeth questioned. Reyna slowly unwrapped the bundle. A baby hellhound looked up at them. The car immediately stopped.

"Be careful," Reyna muttered. She examined the hellhound. There was no way it was more than a few days old.

"Why do you have a hellhound?" Annabeth demanded. Her voice sounded shrill. "Do you know how dangerous they are?"

"It's a baby hellhound," Reyna answered. "Its mother is dead."

"How do you know that?" Annabeth questioned. Reyna didn't answer. She just shifted and tried to hide her shoulder wound which suspiciously looked like a bite mark.

Annabeth fell silent. She started to drive again. It was an awkward silence between the two. Reyna forced herself to focus on the bundle in her hands.

The hellhound was the size of a full grown cat. Its fur was completely black. A wet nose pressed against her hand. Reyna winced as a tongue started to lick some of the blood and water from her hand.

"Great," Annabeth muttered. "It has a taste for blood."

"Why are you so pissed off?" Reyna grumbled. She shifted the hellhound in her arms. Reyna was in a terrible mood. She was freezing cold and practically frozen despite the warm jacket and heater.

"You two are going to give me a heart attack," Annabeth snapped. She stopped the car. "You two keep getting hurt. Now, you think it's a good idea to give Nico a hellhound."

"I don't need a lecture," Reyna snapped. She went to open the door, but Annabeth locked the car. "Chase, what are you doing?"

"Reyna, you need to calm down and see this from my perspective," Annabeth began. "You are a leader of Camp Jupiter. You cannot afford to keep getting injured."

"I'm fine," Reyna grumbled. "I've been through a lot worse."

"What would Nico do if you died?" Annabeth demanded. "He sees you like a sister! Nico would absolutely break if he lost you."

Reyna looked away. She stared at the ground. Annabeth continued, "You have too much on your shoulders to go through with your ridiculous ideas. You didn't have to travel to the Devil's Sinkhole just to get in contact with Nico."

"I know," Reyna muttered. She gripped her jacket and did her best not to hurt the hellhound.

"Why do it then?" Annabeth questioned. She looked at Reyna.

"I screwed up with Nico. I had to make up for it," Reyna whispered. She couldn't explain why she had done it. "Can we please just go?"

Annabeth studied her for a moment. She finally nodded and started to drive again. Reyna laid her head against the window and stared out.

It was a few minutes before they pulled up to Sally's house. Reyna slowly looked at Annabeth. The daughter of Athena spoke, "I didn't mean to yell at you."

"I need to be more careful. I know," Reyna said. She opened the door and stepped out of the car. Reyna adjusted the bundle.

Annabeth walked towards her. She gently lifted the jacket and examined the hellhound. Annabeth spoke, "I think it's a good gift."

"It's probably going to try and eat his hand off," Reyna muttered. Annabeth grabbed her arm.

"It will be fine," Annabeth swore. Reyna wrapped the hellhound back up and allowed for Annabeth to lead her into the house.

"Is Sally still moving?" Reyna questioned. Annabeth nodded. Reyna shivered again. Annabeth opened the door, and they stepped inside.

Everyone turned to yell surprise. They stopped seeing it was only them. Reyna handed the bundle to Annabeth, and she pulled the jacket off. She put a hand to her shoulder.

"What happened?" Percy questioned as he walked towards them.

"I was just getting Nico his gift," Reyna answered. She looked at him. "Can I get cleaned up?"

"Down the hall and to the left," Percy said. Reyna nodded her thanks. She took the bundle from Annabeth and walked towards the bathroom. Reyna stepped inside.

The first thing she did was lay the hellhound in the sink. Reyna took Annabeth's jacket off. Then, she pulled her shirt off. She looked at the bite mark on her shoulder. Reyna closed her eyes and slowly started to clean the wound.

Reyna heard a knock, and Annabeth opened the door. The daughter of Athena spoke, "I have bandages."

"Thanks," Reyna muttered, She slowly grabbed a vial from her pocket. Reyna opened it and poured unicorn powder on the worst of the wound. There was a tingling sensation as some of the wound closed up.

Annabeth bandaged her shoulder as gently as she could. Reyna turned her attention towards the hellhound. It had managed to crawl out from under the jacket. It looked up at them with sleepy eyes.

Reyna slowly put her hand to the hellhound's mouth. It sniffed her hand before licking it. The hellhound pulled away after a moment and laid on the jacket.

"You're all done," Annabeth said. She put the bandages away. Reyna grabbed a towel and started to dry the hellhound. "Would you like to borrow one of my shirts?"

"I'd appreciate it," Reyna answered. She finished drying the hellhound off and worked on cleaning herself up. Annabeth came back with a shirt a minute later. Reyna slowly slipped it on.

"Fits well," Annabeth commented.

"It obviously wasn't made for people with muscles," Reyna teased. Annabeth rolled her eyes and helped her with the hellhound. After a few minutes, they finished.

Reyna winced as the hellhound bit her finger and started to nibble. It didn't have many teeth, so it felt odd instead of painful. Reyna spoke, "I think it does have a taste for blood."

"Probably Roman blood," Annabeth commented. "I think hellhounds like the bitter taste."

Reyna gasped in mock shock. She pulled her finger away from the hellhound. Reyna picked it up and grabbed her wet jacket. Annabeth took the jacket from her and walked out.

Annabeth returned a moment later. She spoke, "You can put the hellhound in the bathtub until it's time."

"Is it a he or she?" Reyna questioned. She gently lifted the hellhound. "Boy."

Reyna walked towards the bathtub and sat the hellhound inside. She placed a hand to her shoulder and followed Annabeth into the living room. Everyone was putting the finishing touches on everything.

"Can I help with anything?" Reyna questioned. She looked around and met Hazel's eyes. Hazel smiled at her and waved. Frank was not able to come to the party. He agreed to stay at Camp Jupiter, so Reyna could go without leaving the camp unattended.

"You can relax," Piper answered from behind her. Reyna turned around. "There's blood on the back of your neck. What happened?"

"I was getting Nico's gift," Reyna answered. She bit her tongue as Annabeth placed a towel to the back of her neck and wiped away the blood.

"Nico is going to freak out if he sees the blood," Piper commented. Reyna shrugged with her good shoulder. Her head turned as the door opened. Sally was standing there.

"Nico refuses leave the car," Sally reported. She took off her wet jacket. "I think he knows."

"I'll get him," Reyna volunteered. She walked outside before anyone could protest. Reyna hurried down the steps and opened the door. She stared at the rain before bracing herself.

Reyna shivered as she stepped out into the cold rain. Her gaze turned towards Sally's van. The engine was still on. Reyna walked towards it and knocked on the window.

Nico looked at her. He instantly shook his head. Reyna motioned for him to roll down the window. Nico shook his head once again.

"I fought a hellhound with my bare fists for your present," Reyna said loudly, so she could be heard over the rain and engine. Nico stared at her. Reyna moved the shirt to reveal the bandage. Nico instantly opened the door.

"What happened?" Nico demanded. He got out of the car and examined the bandage.

"I fought a hellhound with my bare fists." Reyna repeated. Nico stared for a few moments. "Are you going to come in?"

"I don't want a surprise party," Nico muttered. He crossed his arms.

"You're in luck," Reyna commented. "You know about it, so it's just a party."

Nico shook his head. Reyna sighed and examined her best friend. After a moment, she rubbed her shoulder. Reyna suddenly picked Nico up and threw him over her uninjured shoulder.

"Let me go," Nico said trying to struggle in her grasp. Reyna closed the car door and walked around to the driver's side. She opened the door and carefully reached inside for the keys.

Nico tried to take advantage to slip away, but Reyna had a tight grip. She pulled the keys out of the engine and closed the door. Reyna carried Nico inside and up the stairs.

"You can let me go," Nico complained. Reyna walked up to Sally's door and placed Nico on the ground. She put a hand to her shoulder.

"You're bony," Reyna commented. Nico glanced towards a shadow and made a step towards it. Reyna grabbed his collar, opened the door, and shoved him inside.

Nico was assaulted by happy birthdays as he was shoved into the room. His face was completely red. Reyna walked in behind him and closed the door. She smiled at Sally and handed her the keys. Reyna spoke, "Thank you"

"It was my pleasure," Sally said. "How's your shoulder?"

"Sore," Reyna admitted. She couldn't lie to Sally without feeling immense guilt. "The unicorn powder will have most of the damage healed by tomorrow."

"What about the pain?" Sally questioned. Before Reyna could answer, Percy started singing happy birthday. Everyone joined in. Nico looked at Reyna with a look that swore revenge.

"You need to blow out your cake," Hazel said. She led Nico towards the table. Reyna looked back at Sally.

"Unicorn power doesn't do anything about the pain," Reyna finally answered. Before she could react, Sally was pulling her towards the kitchen.

"We'll get drinks," Sally said. She led Reyna towards the fridge but stopped to grab a pill bottle. "This is pain medicine. You are going to take it."

Reyna didn't put up a fight. She held her hand out, and Sally dropped pills in it. Reyna poured herself a small glass of water and took the pills.

Sally started pouring drinks for everyone. Reyna helped her in silence. Her eyes kept drifting back to Nico. He was cutting his cake in the most uneven slices she had ever seen.

Sally placed the drinks on a tray. Reyna went to grab it, but Sally cleared her throat. She picked up the tray. Reyna followed her out.

"We could use you to scold some of the demigods," Reyna commented. Sally smiled as she sat the tray down.

"I cut you a piece," Nico said as he looked at Reyna. He picked up a slice of cake and slowly put it onto a plate. He held up a hand, grabbed a plastic knife, and wrote something into the cake.

Reyna raised an eyebrow as she took the plate. She read the words et tu. A smile came to her lips. Nico tried to look angry, but he wasn't succeeding.

"Should we do presents during cake or after?" Annabeth questioned. She looked at Nico.

"During," Nico said. He seemed to accept his fate and relax. "How long did you guys spend setting it up?"

"A hour," Piper answered. "Sorry Will couldn't come."

"He's making it up by taking me out for dinner," Nico responded. He allowed Annabeth to take over the cake. Nico grabbed his slice and sat down in chair. "Whose gift should I open first?"

"Reyna's," Percy said with a mouth full of cake. Sally shot him a look. Percy apologized quickly, realized he still had his mouth full, and swallowed painfully.

Nico looked at the wrapped presents. Reyna spoke, "It's not wrapped. I'll be back."

Reyna turned and walked back towards the bathroom. She saw the hellhound was laying on its back in the tub. Its little tail wagged as it saw her. Reyna gently picked the hellhound up.

Reyna cradled it in her arm and walked back into the living room. Nico stared at the hellhound. A small smile came to his face.

"Happy birthday," Reyna said. She gently handed the hellhound to Nico. He grabbed it as gently as he could. "It's a boy."

"A hellhound," Nico began. He was still staring, but he still had the small smile. "You got me a hellhound."

"I thought you needed a dog," Reyna said with a shrug. "Even though it is a hellhound."

"Thank you," Nico said. He cradled the hellhound and stood. Nico hugged Reyna tightly. She hugged him back.

Nico sat back down. He placed the hellhound in his lap. Reyna stepped away and walked towards Annabeth.

"What made you decide to get him a hellhound?" Annabeth whispered. Reyna glanced at her.

"I was going to get him an Albania shirt," Reyna whispered. "That would have been a joke gift because his real gift is going to be done in a few days. Since the hellhound attacked, I couldn't just leave its baby out in the rain."

Annabeth stared at her. Reyna smiled slightly. She focused back on Nico and leaned against the wall. Reyna could only hope that her best friend enjoyed his party.


	16. Christmas Eve

**This is the Christmas Eve chapter that is completely late. I hope to have the Christmas chapter up tomorrow, but it all depends on my puppy and how cooperative she is. I hope everyone enjoys.**

* * *

Reyna was going to die on top of a strip club. She would rather be dying inside of it, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Reyna also had more pressing issues to attend to. The most important was the rib that was now in her lung.

Reyna coughed more blood out. She barely managed to lift her head. This was all Nico's fault. He had to go and volunteer them to find some demigod for Chiron. When they found the demigod, they also found a stupid Minotaur.

The demigod had been hiding on the top floor of a parking garage. The girl thought that running into a place with no where to go would be a good idea. At first, the fight had gone decently.

Nico came up with the strategy they would use. It was perfect until the Minotaur had picked up a car and flung it at Reyna. She did not have time to dodge because she had just grabbed the girl. Reyna's only hope was to thrown her cloak over both of them.

Cloaks blessed by Athena were not meant to stop cars. Reyna learned that when the car slammed into them and threw them off of the roof. They had slammed right into the roof of the strip club. The feeling of ribs shattering was instantaneous.

Now, Reyna was staring ahead thinking about how lucky they were to not be dead. She was probably going to die anyway, but that was beside the point. On the bright side, Hylla would be so jealous.

"Are you okay?" the girl questioned in concern. She had been lucky enough to avoid most of the damage. Reyna took the brunt of it.

Reyna coughed out blood and gave the girl a thumbs up. Annabeth had warned to stay out of trouble. This was so Nico's fault though. His great idea led them into the mess.

"What do I do?" the girl questioned. Reyna didn't answer mostly because she was coughing up more blood. It was probable that both lungs had been punctured. It was probably the worst way to go.

Well, there was the one Roman who had died from killer bunnies. Reyna had seen it happen. It was quite terrifying. Reyna decided that punctured lungs was the second worst way to go.

"I can help," the girl began. She looked like she was in absolute panic. "No, I can't. What do I do? What do I do?"

"You can shut up, so I can die in peace," Reyna muttered. She then realized that she would die to a Minotaur. Why couldn't it have been something cool? Did getting hit by the car count?

Reyna's eyes closed against her will. She opened them as someone cried out. Reyna looked at Nico who was only a few feet from her. He was sitting up but was slowly laying back down.

Reyna knew that Nico must have been thrown down from the top of the parking garage. It was about a story fall. She slowly turned on her side and watched him. Reyna had never seen Nico in so much pain.

Her view was blocked as the Minotaur landed in between them. The roof cracked underneath its weight. Reyna had no time to curse as the roof gave away.

Lucky for Reyna, she stayed conscious as they hit the stage. The girl had grabbed onto her as they fell. Reyna choked on blood instead of screaming in pain. On the bright side, she would now die inside the strip club instead of on top of it.

The Minotaur walked towards them. It looked down at them and snorted. Reyna painfully scooted backwards and tried to grab her dagger. She couldn't even sit up fully.

Her hand slowly closed around the dagger. The girl looked down at her. It would take a miracle to kill the Minotaur, but Reyna knew that she was only seconds from passing out. She barely handed the girl the dagger.

"Heart," Reyna whispered. She laid her head on the ground and curled up on her side. Her eyes started to close.

* * *

Reyna woke up to choking on blood and what she hoped was nectar. The girl was staring down at her in concern. Reyna spoke, "I'm not dead? Damn it."

"Pretty lucky," the girl commented. Reyna nodded in agreement. The girl helped her sit up, but Reyna collapsed on her side a moment later. She spat more blood out and stared ahead.

"Reyna, you were seconds from death," Nico whispered. He was laying on his back and staring at her in shock. Reyna gave him a pained thumbs up.

"She'll be fine," the girl promised. She looked much calmer than before. Reyna didn't know why she was so confident. On the bright side, the pain wasn't as bad as before, and she wasn't coughing up blood which was nice.

"Sup?" Reyna asked as she focused back on Nico. She assumed that the Minotaur was dead because of the large pile of monster dust near them alone with a horn. The girl still had Reyna's dagger in her hand. Beginner's luck.

"You coughed blood up everywhere," Nico commented.

"I like to freak you out," Reyna teased. She watched Nico and tried to conserve her strength. Standing would come later once she figured out why she wasn't dead and why it felt like her ribs were out of her lungs. "How close am I to death now?"

"We gave you more nectar than you needed," Nico answered. "I think your ribs are out of your lungs."

"How?" Reyna wondered. She tried to sit up but groaned in pain. "This sucks."

"Luck," the girl answered. She knelt next to Nico.

"That doesn't make sense," Nico argued.

"Luck doesn't make sense," the girl answered. "It is just a thing that happens. It's the reason I killed the Minotaur, and it's the reason your friend isn't dead."

"Damn it," Reyna groaned. "You're a child of Fortuna."

"Fortuna?" Nico asked. Reyna shook her head. She motioned for the girl to help up. After a moment, Reyna was on her feet.

Her ribs hated her at that moment. Reyna ignored the pain and walked towards Nico. She held a hand out. Nico didn't take it. In fact, he blushed.

"I can't help you stand if you don't take my hand," Reyna said.

"That's the problem," Nico began. "I think I broke my butt."

Reyna laughed and promptly collapsed to the ground. She curled up as she laughed. Nico spoke, "Jerk."

It hurt to laugh, but it was too funny. Reyna needed to record this moment. The girl stood by them awkwardly. She finally cleared her throat and spoke, "What is going on?"

"You're a demigod," Reyna said in between laughing, coughing, and wheezing for breath. She forced herself to calm down. "I assume that your mother is Fortuna."

"What?" the girl asked. She sounded shocked. Reyna raised an arm to show off her tattoo.

"Romans get these. Have you had any dreams to go to a wolf house?" Reyna questioned. The girl shook her head. "You're definitely and unfortunately a Greek then. Come on."

Reyna slowly managed to get to her feet with the girl's help. The praetor spoke, "Name's Reyna. That's Nico. I'm a daughter of Bellona, and Nico is a son of Hades."

"Lucia," the girl said. She looked at Nico. "Do we have anymore of that nectar stuff?"

Reyna looked at Nico who painfully shook his head. She bit back a curse and walked towards him. Reyna grabbed Nico and picked him up. The pain almost caused her to collapse back to the ground.

"Grab my arm," Reyna wheezed. Lucia quickly did. "Nico, Camp Half-Blood."

Her eyes closed as they shadow traveled. The side effects hit her as she felt her feet hit solid ground. Reyna promptly collapsed a moment later.

The cries of alarm didn't register. She managed to open her eyes to see Annabeth standing over her. She looked like she wanted to chide Reyna, but she also looked extremely concerned. Reyna held up a hand and spoke, "This was all Nico's fault."

"It would technically be mine," Chiron said as he walked towards them. Reyna managed a pitiful wave. She glanced at Nico who was out of it. Lucia looked ready to have a panic attack.

"That's Lucia," Reyna muttered. "She killed the Minotaur while I was unconscious. One of my ribs may have also reinserted itself into my lungs, so I'm going to pass out now."

"No," Annabeth said sternly. She pulled Reyna up and into a chair. Reyna groaned in agony and spat out blood. She had the decency to do it on the grass.

"What's wrong with Nico?" Chiron questioned. Reyna started laughing again, and more pain tore through her chest. Karma was going to kick her ass, but it would be so worth it.

"He broke his butt," Reyna answered in between laughs. Chiron deserved all the credit in the world. His face did not curve into the smile that Reyna knew was threatening to break out. Chiron nodded.

"Percy, can you get Will?" Chiron questioned. Percy was busy silently laughing. He managed to stand and stumble away.

Reyna looked up with tears in her eyes from laughing so much. She saw Annabeth pull out nectar. Reyna spoke, "They already made me drink too much."

"Do you think the strip club will be mad|?" Lucia asked. Annabeth turned to stare at her. Reyna started laughing again. Tears filled her eyes from how painful it was.

"I think the janitor will be," Reyna muttered. Annabeth grabbed her arm.

"Strip club?" Annabeth demanded. Reyna tried to speak, but she couldn't. The pain was starting to overtake her other senses. Annabeth grabbed her face. "Stay awake."

"I really really don't want to," Reyna said. She would have fallen off of the chair if Annabeth had not grabbed her.

"Reyna!" Nico cried. Reyna slowly looked up. She felt Chiron grab her arm. Lucia grabbed her other arm.

Reyna's eyes closed tiredly. Annabeth wrapped Reyna's arm around her shoulder and helped her stand. She practically carried Reyna towards the infirmary.

"Do you think you're just going to pass out or worse?" Annabeth questioned. Reyna considered it.

"Pass out," Reyna answered. She opened her eyes and frowned. "It may be worse. I'm not sure."

"It would be bad if you died on Christmas Eve," Annabeth commented as she opened the door to the infirmary. She sat Reyna on the nearest bed. Reyna laid on her back and groaned painfully.

"Want to hear something funny?" Reyna asked. She felt slightly lightheaded. Her eyes started to close. "I've never celebrated Christmas."

"Why not?" Annabeth questioned. She gently moved Reyna's head to the side. Reyna felt two cold hands being placed to her ribs.

"Hylla was too busy protecting me," Reyna hissed. She tried to control her pained breathing. "My dad wasn't there enough for it. Circe never celebrated it. Camp Jupiter gives you the holiday off, so I just stayed and trained."

Reyna had a sixth sense that could tell when needles were near her neck. That was why her hand shot out to grab a needle that was an inch from her neck. Annabeth grabbed her arm and pinned it.

"It's going to help you sleep," Annabeth began.

"It's a needle near my neck," Reyna said. "I don't need help sleeping."

"You're going to be up and moving," Annabeth protested. "Sorry."

Reyna tried to fight, but Annabeth held her arms down. She struggled as the needle was inserted into her neck. Reyna closed her eyes tightly. Needles were a childhood fear that she had always kept locked away.

After a few moments, Reyna felt even more tired. She also felt relaxed. Her eyes started to close against her will. The last thing she saw was Nico staring at her as he was carried into the infirmary.


	17. Christmas

Nico hated his life sometimes. Will, being the immature jerk that he was, had already made about twenty butt jokes. Nico had woken up five minutes ago. If the jokes continued, he was going to crawl to a cliff and throw himself off of it.

Nico turned his head to look at Reyna. She was still asleep. Reyna had not been awake since Annabeth jabbed a needle into her neck. That sucked for Nico because he had been up almost all night.

"Merry Christmas," Will said. Nico glanced at him. His boyfriend smirked. "I promise I will stop with the butt jokes."

"Is that my gift?" Nico teased. Will winked at him and leaned back in his seat. He was toying with a box. Nico raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to ask me to get married?"

"Why would I want to marry someone who broke their butt?" Will teased. Nico gave him a look. "I'll stop with the butt jokes starting now."

Will handed the package to Nico. The son of Hades opened it and stared. There was a ring inside that had a skull. It rested on top of a lyre.

"I made it myself," Will said. Nico smiled. It looked pretty ugly, but he loved it.

"I didn't get you anything," Nico began. Will looked at him and smiled brightly. His teeth were almost blinding.

"All I need is you," Will said. Nico did his best not to blush, but he couldn't help it. His boyfriend kissed his cheek and stood. "I have to go, but I'll visit soon."

"Do you promise?" Nico teased. Will smiled at him and walked out. Nico laid his head back. He sighed tiredly and glanced at Reyna. She had given him a heart attack the night before.

Now, they could relax. It was Christmas, but that didn't make him feel better. The last good Christmas he had was with Bianca. Nico swallowed painfully as he thought of his sister.

A door opening caught his attention. He turned his head and saw Piper. She was holding up his hellhound. A very angry Drew stood next to her.

"Your stupid little mutt," Drew began. She stepped forward, but Piper grabbed her.

"Your hellhound got into our cabin," Piper began. Nico slowly looked at his hellhound and couldn't suppress a laugh.

"Don't even," Drew snapped. She snatched the hellhound out of Piper's hands and threw it at Nico. The hellhound yelped as Nico barely caught him. "Keep that stupid thing out of my cabin."

Nico looked down at his hellhound who was covered in all different types of makeup. Drew huffed in anger, looked like she wanted to curse, and stalked out.

"Sorry about her," Piper said. She grabbed a towel and ran it under water. Piper helped clean the hellhound off.

"It's no big deal," Nico promised. He smiled at his hellhound. "Having a good Christmas?"

"Drew almost screamed my ear off," Piper replied. "It could have been worse, but I'll live. How are you feeling?"

"My butt is numb," Nico admitted. He tried not to think about how terrible that sentence sounded. "I'm more worried about Reyna. She hasn't woken up yet."

"Annabeth gave her strong medicine," Piper said. She gently tried to pick up the hellhound. It tried to bite her. "What are you going to name him?"

"I haven't decided," Nico answered. He rubbed his chin before laying his head back. A rough tongue started licking his face a moment later.

"Killer would be a good one," Reyna mumbled. Nico quickly looked at her. Reyna was staring at the ceiling. She had a hand resting on her stomach.

"How do you feel?" Nico questioned. Reyna started laughing. She groaned in agony a moment later and turned on her side.

"Sorry. I just remembered that you broke your butt," Reyna said. Nico glared at her. "We were fighting with a child of Fortuna. How could you break your butt?"

"She probably used all of her luck to save you," Nico said. Reyna's eyes flickered away from him. "Hey, I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah," Reyna muttered. She turned on her back and stared up at the ceiling. Nico frowned. Reyna sighed tiredly. "Sorry about laughing at you."

"Reyna, what's wrong?" Piper questioned. She stood and took a step forward. Nico grabbed Piper's arm. He tried to figure out why Reyna was in a bad mood.

Nico was pretty sure that Reyna was not fighting with her sister. Everything at Camp Jupiter was good. It didn't make sense. It wasn't like anyone had died. Nico laid his head back as he realized why Reyna was in a terrible mood.

"Reyna, it's okay," Nico began.

"Don't," Reyna snapped. She looked at Nico. There was tears starting to form in her eyes. Reyna tried to sit up, but she winced in pain. The praetor turned her back to them and stared at a wall.

Nico bit his tongue. He wanted to tell comfort Reyna, but he didn't know what to say. What could he even say? Sorry that this is the anniversary of when you killed your father. I'm sure this Christmas will be better.

Piper glanced at Nico. Her gaze moved to Reyna. Nico shook his head. He knew his best friend needed time alone. Piper seemed to understand. She nodded and walked out.

Nico laid his head back. Reyna had told him how she had killed her father, but they didn't talk about it after that. It was too difficult of a subject. Nico didn't want to talk about his own sister's death. Why would Reyna want to talk about her father's?

Great. Now, Nico's thoughts were drifting towards Bianca. This would be the first Christmas that he actually celebrated without his sister. Truthfully, Nico missed her. He sniffled and realized tears were coming to his eyes.

The son of Hades quickly wiped his eyes. He sniffled and cleared his throat. His eyes drifted back to Reyna. She was trying to pretend that she was asleep, but Nico knew better.

The door opening caught his attention. He looked up to see Lucia. She smiled happily at Nico. He managed a smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace.

"How are you feeling?" Lucia asked.

"Perfect," Nico answered. "Other than the fact that I cannot walk."

"I wish I could have given some of my luck to you," Lucia said. She sat near him. "Chiron tells me that it comes on and off at random. He also told me I would have bad luck days."

"Bad luck days?" Nico asked. He really didn't like the sound of that. From Lucia's face, she didn't like it either.

"There will days when I am completely unlucky," Lucia said. "If I touch anyone, they will get my bad luck. Chiron said it should be controllable because my siblings and I can be contained that day.. He did tell me that one of those bad luck days caused World War One, so no pressure."

"How did it cause World War One?" Reyna questioned as she turned back towards them. Reyna would avoid her feelings, but she couldn't avoid hearing about a war. Nico did his best not to roll his eyes, but he was glad she no longer seemed angry.

"The guy who killed the Archduke accidentally tripped and fired his gun. The bullet managed to hit the Archduke," Lucia answered.

"No pressure," Nico agreed. He slowly looked at Reyna. A million things ran through his head. He focused on one thought. "Hylla is going to be so jealous when she learns you destroyed a strip club."

It was meant to be a joke. He didn't want the sad look in Reyna's eyes to come back. How could he be so bad at comforting someone? Reyna turned on her back and stared at the ceiling.

Nico winced as his hellhound started to nibble on his fingers. He tried to think how to comfort Reyna. Nothing came to mind. Nico sighed and laid his head back.

"I need to get back, but I wanted to check on you two," Lucia said. She stood and looked at them. "I owe you two my life."

"Our pleasure," Nico replied. Lucia nodded and walked out. Reyna sighed deeply and stared at the ceiling. She would not meet Nico's eyes. "Want to sneak out?"

"I want to crawl in a hole," Reyna replied. That wasn't the answer that Nico wanted, but it was progress. Reyna was expressing some emotions.

"That strip club is going to be mad," Nico joked. Reyna didn't respond which made Nico angrier. That was why he didn't think about his next words. "Even though I have a family member that is dead, you don't see me being all pissed off."

Nico didn't know why the words left his mouth. He wanted to grab them and shove them back in. Reyna's jaw clenched. She was on her feet a moment later. Nico did his best to sit up, and Reyna helped him by grabbed his shirt and practically pulling him into a sitting position.

"Don't compare them," Reyna hissed. "You don't understand what it is like and pray that you never do."

Reyna shoved Nico back on the bed and left the infirmary. Nico laid his head back and put both hands to his face. How? How did he manage to piss his best friend off on Christmas?

Nico stayed like that for five minutes. He heard the door open and lowered his hands. An apology was already forming in his head. It died as he saw Hazel.

Nico was always happy to see Hazel, but today was a slight exception. He needed to find Reyna and apologize to her. Hazel seemed to sense his bad mood.

"What's wrong?" Hazel asked. She lowered the present in her hands. Nico took a deep breath and forced a smile. He couldn't ruin Hazel's Christmas.

"Nothing," Nico answered. "You can't get me anything because I didn't get you anything."

"Too late," Hazel said with a smile. She knew something was wrong, but she wasn't going to force the issue. Hazel walked towards his bed and sat the present down. She gently picked up the hellhound.

The hellhound barked happily and licked Hazel's face. Nico was eighty percent sure that the hellhound like Hazel more than him. Hazel spoke, "For Christmas, you should give your hellhound a name."

"I don't have a name scary enough," Nico said. He sat up the best he could. Hazel handed him the present. Nico slowly took it and opened it.

Nico stared as he saw the necklace. It, unsurprisingly, had a skull on it. It was made out of stygian iron. Nico looked up and spoke, "Thank you."

Hazel hugged him gently. She spoke, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Nico said. He hugged Hazel back. "What are you plans for today?"

"I have a date with Frank," Hazel answered. "I heard that Reyna was here too. Where is she?"

"I made her mad," Nico answered. "I have to make it up to her, but I don't know where she went."

Hazel nodded. She smiled at Nico. He returned the smile, but his thoughts drifted away. Nico shifted and winced. There was an odd sensation of pain and numbness in his butt, and he did not enjoy the sensation.

"I'm sure Reyna will turn up," Hazel said. "I'll get you some food, okay?"

Nico nodded gratefully. He laid his head back as Hazel walked out. The son of Hades closed his eyes and rubbed his face. His hellhound nibbled on his sleeve and tried pulling it. Nico gently pushed the hellhound away.

Today sucked. He had a broken butt and couldn't move. Worse, he had angered his best friend. Nico sighed. He had to make it up to Reyna.

"As soon as I am out of this bed, I will find Reyna and apologize," Nico vowed. He looked as his hellhound as started to chew on his hand, "You need to stop tearing up the Aphrodite cabin. You're suppose to do it to the Ares cabin, understood? Well, Drew is an exception, but you can't be caught next time."

The hellhound licked his face. Nico smiled slightly and caught the hellhound's breath. He promptly gagged and tried to breath. Nico realized this was definitely karma.

Nico placed his hellhound by his side. He picked up his ring and put it on. His necklace went on a moment later. Nico stared at the ceiling as apologies ran through his head.


	18. Aphrodite TV

Reyna was never going to refuse bed rest again. The Senate heard about her broken ribs, and they had given her an opportunity to still do something that would count as resting without resting actually involved. It seemed to good to be true, and itt was.

"I just want to see how a normal demigod lives," Venus said as she worked on her makeup. Reyna stared ahead as she stopped at a stoplight. Her job was to be the host for Venus' new show. Wait, she was Aphrodite. The goddess didn't even have the decency to be in her Roman form.

This had to be some kind of prank. Aphrodite could not be starring in her own reality show. It was terrible. Aphrodite had two cameras on her and Reyna at all times. For some reason, the goddess wanted to live a mortal life.

"This is taking too long," Aphrodite complained as she looked at the traffic light. She snapped her fingers, and the light turned green. Reyna stared into the camera for a few moments before Aphrodite nudged her. "The light is green silly."

Reyna looked ahead and focused on driving. She was already losing it. Aphrodite kept snapping her fingers to change the song on the radio. Every. Few. Seconds.

"What will we be doing at Camp Half-Blood?" Aphrodite questioned. "Do you think there will be time for makeovers. That would be good for Aphrodite TV."

"Yeah," Reyna muttered. She bit back a growl as Aphrodite changed the radio again. The goddess muttered to herself and snapped her fingers. The radio turned back to the song that had just been on. After a moment, Aphrodite skipped the song by snapping her fingers.

Reyna was going to explode. She slowly spoke, "Mortals can't change the radio."

"And?" Aphrodite questioned. She snapped her fingers again. Reyna watched a camera move in front of her face which allowed her to stare into it and still focus on the road.

"Help me," Reyna mouthed. She took a deep breath and focused ahead. After fifteen minutes, she pulled up outside the hill to Camp Half-Blood. Reyna put the van into park.

"Are you ready to meet your co-host?" Aphrodite questioned as she got out of the van. Reyna stared at her and slowly got out of the van. If she moved too fast, it hurt her ribs.

Reyna turned towards the hill and cursed as she saw Nico. It was the last person she wanted to see. He slowly walked towards them.

"This is going to be so much fun," Aphrodite squealed. Reyna took a deep breath, regretted it, and walked towards Nico. A camera followed her.

"Hey," Nico greeted. His eyes were apologizing. Reyna just sighed and walked up the hill. She needed to keep it civil. "How are you ribs?"

So, Nico wanted to make small talk. Reyna wasn't in the mood, but it was better than being with Aphrodite. Reyna spoke, "Broken."

"It's been two days," Nico began. He stopped at the top of the hill. Reyna did too. She waited for Aphrodite to catch up. The goddess was lugging a heavy suitcase up the hill. Shame she had no one to carry it for her.

"They're still broken," Reyna said. She looked at Nico and didn't keep the venom out of her voice. "We don't get nectar and ambrosia to speed the healing."

She might have been a little harsh, but she didn't care. Nico looked away and didn't say anything. After two minutes, Aphrodite managed to get up the hill with her overstuffed suitcase. It was as large as the goddess.

"Reyna, can you introduce where we are?" Aphrodite questioned.

"A hill," Reyna replied. Aphrodite shot her a look. "Oh, I meant to say a large hill."

"It's the entrance to Camp Half-Blood," Nico explained. He looked at the camera as he pointed to the dragon. "There is our dragon which guards the Golden Fleece. That tree is Thalia's. It was made when she sacrificed herself for her friends, and it keeps monsters and mortals out."

"Let's go," Aphrodite said. She started to walk with her suitcase. It was so heavy that it practically dragged her down the hill, and she was forced to let go of it. Reyna watched it roll down the hill and barely clip a camper. They were thrown to the ground like a car had hit them.

Reyna sighed and walked down the hill. She grabbed the suitcase and tried to lift it. Pain tore through her ribs, and the suitcase didn't move an inch. Right. It was too heavy for a goddess, so a demigod wouldn't even be able to budge it.

"What is in here?" Reyna wheezed. She stood and placed a hand to her ribs. Her day sucked even more at that moment. Reyna turned towards the camper and help them up.

The girl thanked her and started to limp away. That had to have hurt. Aphrodite walked towards Reyna's side and pulled up the suitcase.

"It's just clothes for the weekend," Aphrodite answered. Reyna stared at her. The goddess smiled and started to drag her suitcase away. Reyna saw Nico walk towards her and open his mouth.

"Don't talk," Reyna ordered. She turned to follow Aphrodite. A hand grabbed her shoulder.

"No," Nico hissed. "Listen to me. I am sorry for what I said."

The praetor stopped walking. She looked at the ground and took a deep breath. Reyna spoke, "The two events are nothing alike. You couldn't do anything about what happened to Bianca."

"What happened to my father was my fault," Reyna whispered. "I had control of the events. Don't dishonor yourself by comparing the two."

Nico stared at her. He spoke, "Reyna, stop. This isn't you."

Reyna didn't respond. She had been feeling really low the past few days. It always happened around that time of the year.

"I shouldn't have said what I did," Nico began. "I know that you're mad at me and feel guilty about being angry. You have every right to be upset. What happened to your father was not your fault."

Reyna looked down. Before Nico could say anything else, Aphrodite stepped in between them. The goddess spoke, "I talked to Chiron. He said that I would be staying at my cabin. I assume it's the large mansion."

Nico snorted and tried to cover it with a cough. He cleared his throat and looked at Aphrodite. The goddess was glaring.

"Your cabin is the barbie one," Reyna interrupted. She gave Nico a small smirk. "You should take the camera in for an authentic reaction."

Aphrodite nodded. Makeup appeared in her hands, and she stared to do her eyeliner. The goddess spoke, "Bring my bags."

"But," Reyna began. Aphrodite walked away and promptly ignored her. Reyna sighed and turned towards Nico.

"Don't hide your emotions," Nico ordered.

"Nico, thank you," Reyna said. She placed a hand to her ribs. "I don't want to talk about it today, but I will sometime. All's forgiven. We good?"

"Of course," Nico answered. He punched Reyna hard in the shoulder. "That's for laughing about me breaking my butt."

Reyna opened her mouth to respond. She froze as she realized the camera was still on them. Nico had just admitted that he had broken his butt to whoever had been watching.

Nico stared at the camera. He looked like he wanted to speak but couldn't. Reyna watched the camera. A small light lit up on the side. Reyna read the word commercial. She laughed and collapsed to the ground.

"Who do you think is watching?" Nico whispered.

"Everyone," Reyna wheezed. She closed her eyes. Nico finally helped her stand and made an odd noise.

"My butt hurts," Nico mumbled. Reyna bit back a laugh because she couldn't handle the pain.

"Please stop talking," Reyna said. "You're only making it worse."

Nico nodded his agreement. He spoke, "How did you get dragged into this?"

"I didn't want bed rest," Reyna replied. "The Senate immediately offered me a job that give me something to do besides resting. I should have realized it was a trap."

"How should we get out of this?" Nico whispered.

"We don't," Reyna answered. She glanced at Nico and smirked. "We wait for it to blow up in Aphrodite's face."

* * *

It took three hours for the reality show to blow up in Aphrodite's face. Unfortunately, it also blew up in Reyna's face as well. Camp Half-Blood had just finished dinner when Aphrodite wanted to get something from her van. Reyna was volunteered to get it for her.

"What are we getting?" Reyna questioned as the walked away from the table. One camera followed behind them. The other had gone to the campfire.

"Nothing," Aphrodite replied. "Campfires are so bad for my hair and complexion."

Reyna was torn between annoyance and understanding. She hated the singing at the campfire. Why learn about your grandma's armor when you could just put it on and kill someone?

Reyna decided on rubbing her forehead. She hated the reality show and just hoped it would be over soon. Without complaint, Reyna followed Aphrodite to the van. When they were five feet from the van, it exploded.

The explosion threw Reyna backwards a few feet. She hit the ground hard and probably blacked out for a few moments. She opened her eyes to see someone standing over her.

"Roman," Bendis hissed. Reyna stared. How did the goddess even manage to find her? Reyna painfully scooted backwards. Standing was not an option.

Nico appeared in front of her. He held his sword in front of them protectively. Bendis laughed and spoke, "Do you think that your little toothpick will do anything to me?"

"Come find out," Nico challenged. Bendis smirked and went to attack. A blur moved in front of them.

Aphrodite disarmed Bendis and kicked her backwards. Bendis snarled and held out her hand. Her fallen bow shot towards her hand.

"We need to go," Nico said. He pulled Reyna up. She stumbled and gritted her teeth painfully. Her attention stayed on Aphrodite. She stared as the goddess of love deflected two arrows with her sword. "Reyna!"

"I know," Reyna muttered. She took a step backwards and forced herself to keep from stumbling. Nico steadied her and helped her walk towards the hill. Reyna placed a hand to her head and was glad to find no blood. Her head ached pretty badly, but it wasn't a concussion.

"What happened?" Reyna groaned. She could see campers gathered at the hill. They looked hesitant to cross the border. Others looked like they were in shock.

"How do you keep managing to get hurt?" Nico whispered.

"I got reinjured," Reyna countered. Nico helped her across the barrier and allowed her to collapse to her knees. Reyna glanced behind them.

Bendis and Aphrodite were locked in battle. It even looked like Aphrodite was winning. Reyna felt a canteen being shoved into her hands.

"You need to stop getting hurt," Annabeth chided.

"I'm fine," Reyna said. She winced as Annabeth placed a hand to the back of her head. Annabeth pulled her hand away and raised an eyebrow at the blood.

"Tis but a scratch," Reyna decided after a moment. Annabeth glared and waited. Reyna rolled her eyes but took a drink from the canteen. She felt some of the pain melt away. Annabeth placed a towel to the back of her head.

"I am sorry for what happened," Nico whispered as he sat down near her. Reyna slowly sat down and rubbed her forehead tiredly.

"Hey, we're cool," Reyna promised. "Besides, I might kick your butt in sparring to even it out."

"You'd have to stay uninjured for that," Nico teased. He winced as Aphrodite smacked Bendis into the ruined van. "Do you think that she had makeup in the van?"

"Probably," Reyna replied. She looked at Nico. "And, I could kick your butt with one arm tied behind my back."

"Challenge accepted," Nico said. He winked and nudged her. Nico then winced as Aphrodite stabbed Bendis in the stomach and pulled the sword out. The goddess of love smacked Bendis with her sword handle.

"I have five bucks on Aphrodite," Reyna commented. She winced as Bendis fired an arrow at Aphrodite and caught her in the shoulder.

"Ten on Bendis winning. Twenty on Ares coming to save Aphrodite," Nico countered.

"You can't place two bets," Reyna said. She frowned and thought about it. "Nevermind, you can. That way I get thirty bucks when I win."

"In your dreams," Nico muttered. He looked at Reyna and smiled happily. Reyna returned the smile and wrapped her arm around Nico's shoulders. She pulled him close.

"I'll put fifty on Aphrodite," Reyna finally decided. She watched Aphrodite cut another arrow out of the air. Who knew that a goddess of love would be good at fighting?

Reyna groaned as Nico pulled away and helped her to her feet. She placed a hand to her ribs and watched the fight. Truthfully, Reyna was concerned as to why Bendis had targeted her. Hopefully, it was just a coincidence, and nothing would come of it.


	19. Book Report

Nico was really confused when he woke up. That was because he was laying on a bed. To be exact, it was Reyna's bed. Nico frowned and tried slipping out of the blankets that were wrapped around him.

As he struggled, his mind drifted back to the night before. Nico had escorted Reyna back to her house and stayed the night with her. The last thing he remembered was watching some movie. He guessed that he fell asleep during it.

That didn't explain why he was in Reyna's bed. Her ribs were still broke, so she shouldn't be lifting anything. Nico decided to spend the next two minutes thinking of a lecture.

Nico finally managed to extract himself from the blankets he was buried under. The son of Hades took a deep breath and walked out of Reyna's room. He took four steps down the hall and stepped into the living room. His lecture died on his lips.

Two people were lounging around on the couch. One of them was Reyna. The praetor had a laptop on her lap, and she was typing into it. An open book rested on the table near her. As Reyna glanced at it, she seemed to notice Nico.

"Morning," Nico slowly said. His eyes moved to the second person. Hylla watched him without a word. The queen of the Amazons looked relaxed, but there was also something angry in her eyes.

"Hey," Reyna muttered. Her attention was on the laptop as she typed. Hylla shifted and used Reyna's legs as a foot rest. Nico realized that Hylla had not taken her eyes off of him.

"Son of Hades," Hylla greeted. She smiled, but it seemed forced. Nico found himself quickly in hostile territory. Hylla was mad at him, but he had no clue why.

"What are you doing here?" Nico questioned. "Shouldn't you be with your Amazons?"

"I owed my sister a late Christmas present," Hylla answered. "For some reason, she didn't like my first gift."

"I do not need you to set me up on a date with one of the boys that you keep as a slave," Reyna muttered. Her eyes moved off of the laptop for a moment.

"They are trained," Hylla said with a shrug. "I even offered to set you up with one of the Amazons. What's wrong with that?"

"You would have the slave or Amazon report on me," Reyna muttered. "They would be scared to make a move. The only Amazon I am interested in is taken."

"I told you that I would take her girlfriend out," Hylla countered. Reyna rolled her eyes before going back to typing.

"No offense," Nico began as he looked at Hylla. "The slaves in the Amazons aren't that hot."

"Neither are you," Hylla commented. Reyna hi her sister's shoulder. "Hey, I like chicks! It's not my fault you swing both ways."

"Shut up," Reyna ordered. Hylla sighed and looked at the laptop. She snorted before looking back at Nico.

"What are you typing?" Nico wondered. He sat by Hylla because the anger seemed to have subsided. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Aurum and Argentum fighting each other for a large piece of metal.

"Book report," Reyna replied. "It's due at five."

"Wait," Nico began. "Why are you doing a book report?"

"For college," Hylla answered like it was obvious. She gave Reyna a look. The praetor raised an eyebrow, and Hylla sighed. "Right. It's so she can complete high school to get into college."

"We left Puerto Rico when I was young, and I haven't had any official education since then," Reyna explained. "When I came to Camp Jupiter, I've been trying to make up for the lost years, so I can attend the college. One of the professors is helping me."

"My little sister wants an education," Hylla commented. "Why do that when you can just be queen?"

"Until you get killed," Reyna muttered bitterly. Hylla fell silent for a moment. She glanced at her sister.

Nico understood where Reyna was coming from. It reminded him of Bianca. She had joined a group that she could have easily died in, and she did. Nico slowly looked back at the two sisters.

"If I get killed," Hylla corrected as she seemed to snap out of the shock. A smirk came to her face. "You are extremely negative. Are you sure that I should not set you up with anyone? It might help you release some stress."

Reyna didn't respond. She focused back on her laptop. Hylla sighed dramatically but fell silent. The three of them didn't say another word.

Nico watched the two sisters. He glanced at Hylla who was watching him rather intently. The anger was back in her eyes. As far as Nico knew, he had not done anything to anger her. It confused him.

"Nico, we should give Reyna some time alone to finish her essay. Besides, I need you to help me figure out some numbers for supplies to Camp Half-Blood," Hylla said as she stood. Nico nodded and stood.

It was odd that Hylla was asking him for help, but he couldn't just decline it. Nico walked towards Reyna's room since it was the furthest away. He turned towards Hylla.

Hylla closed the door behind them. She spoke, "Yesterday, I was walking to dinner with two of my Amazons. When we stepped inside, we saw a large crowd gathered around an Iris message. Do you know what they were watching?"

"Aphrodite's show," Nico answered after a moment. He looked up at Hylla and did not allow himself to be intimidate by her.

"I watched the van blow up in my sister's face," Hylla hissed. Her voice quivered because of how angry she was. Before that, she almost died because of you."

Nico opened his mouth. Hylla grabbed his jaw and squeezed tightly. She spoke, "And before that, there was all that crap with the sinkhole and the goddess. Do you see what the problem is? It's you."

"For some reason, she keeps getting hurt around you Greeks," Hylla hissed. "She wouldn't even have been at your stupid camp yesterday if you weren't such an idiot!"

"What are you talking about?" Nico demanded as he pulled away from Hylla's grasp. He didn't want to lose his patience, but Hylla was pushing it.

"You couldn't keep your stupid mouth shut," Hylla snapped. "I know she told you about our father. You should have known the effect that your words would have!"

"I made a mistake," Nico yelled suddenly. The anger just came out. Before Nico could say anything else, he found himself slammed into the wall. Hylla's forearm pressed against his throat, and it became really hard to breath.

"You hurt my little sister," Hylla hissed. "We were going to have lunch yesterday. She was too angry to go, and she got the assignment from the Senate instead. You're the reason she was attacked."

Nico looked down and closed his eyes. He didn't want to hurt Reyna. The door opened.

"What are you doing?" Reyna demanded. The forearm moved from Nico's throat, and he opened his eyes. Reyna shoved her sister back angrily.

"Did you tell him?" Hylla asked in a soft voice. Reyna didn't respond. "I thought so. Why didn't you tell your best friend how close you were to death?"

"What?" Nico demanded. His mind was racing. When he had pulled Reyna away from the wreckage, she was not anywhere near death.

"One centimeter," Hylla said. "If one of Reyna's broken ribs went a centimeter more to the right, it would have tore right through her lung, and there would have been no way to repair the damage. Do you both understand how lucky you are?"

Nico stared at Reyna. He felt terrible. This was his fault, and there was nothing he could do to make up for it. Reyna met his eyes then looked away.

"Go and do your report," Hylla ordered. Reyna opened her mouth. "Go!"

Reyna visibly flinched as her sister yelled. Her eyes instantly went out of focus, and it was almost like she was having a flashback. Nico slowly grabbed Reyna's arm. She was shaking slightly.

"I'm sorry," Hylla whispered as she gently grabbed Reyna's shoulder. Reyna pulled away from both of them. She stormed out of the room.

Nico heard another door slam shut. He closed his eyes knowing Reyna had locked herself in the bathroom. Hylla cursed angrily and walked towards the bathroom. She knocked on the door.

"I didn't mean it," Hylla said. When no response was given, she laid her head against the door. "Reyna, you need to come out, okay? I know you're remembering him. Let me help."

"She needs to be alone," Nico whispered. He gently grabbed Hylla's arm. This is how Nico would act. He wouldn't want anyone's help at the moment. Reyna needed to have time to calm down.

Hylla studied him for a long moment. Then, she pulled her arm from him and stalked away. Nico sighed sadly as he sat against the wall. Hylla's words ran through his head, and each one felt like a punch to the gut. Nico closed his eyes miserably and sat there in silence.


	20. Book Report II

**GoldenFlame1216: Kinzie is alive in this story.**

 **Thank you everyone for the follows, favorites, and reviews.**

* * *

Nico's strategy of sitting there and waiting lasted about twenty seconds. Originally, he thought Reyna just needed a few moments, and then, she would walk out completely fine. That all changed when he heard her starting to hyperventilate. Nico had no way of knowing it would turn into a full blown panic attack.

When the realization hit him, he was on his feet in a second. Nico grabbed the door knob and tried to open it. The door didn't budge. He wanted to slam his shoulder into the door but managed to stop himself. Nico didn't want to freak Reyna out anymore.

"Reyna, can you hear me?" Nico asked as he leaned on the door. He still messed with the door knob. No response was given besides Reyna hitting something and her panicked breathing.

"I would appreciate it if you unlocked the door," Nico continued. For a moment, he wondered where Hylla was. It seemed unlikely that she would abandon her sister. His answer came when someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away.

"She can't hear you," Hylla muttered holding a small bag in her hands. After grabbing tools from the bag, she knelt in front of the door and started to pick the lock. "Reyna is having a panic attack and maybe a flashback. I shouldn't have yelled at her."

"I've never seen Reyna like that," Nico whispered. Hylla stopped for a moment and sighed deeply. Her hands were shaking slightly.

"It's because of me," Hylla muttered. "I remind her of our father. When she is with other people, he is out of sight and out of mind, but I bring it back. When I yell at her like that, there is a chance it will bring her back to one of those nights, especially since it's around the anniversary of his death."

Nico remained silent as Hylla finished picking the lock. She tried to push the door open, but it didn't budge. Hylla took a deep breath, and it seemed like she was trying to calm herself.

"Reyna, you need to move from the door," Hylla began. Her grip tightened on the handle, she pressed her head into the wall. "Please."

Hylla tried to open the door again. Her jaw clenched when there was no budge. She spoke, "Reyna, you need to move, or I will force this door open."

"Don't threaten her," Nico snapped. Hylla glared at him, and it seemed like the glare could melt him on the spot. Nico met her eyes and didn't back down.

"Don't raise your voice," Hylla whispered. "It will freak her out more. Right now, Reyna is a time bomb. We need to keep our cool, okay?"

Hylla took a deep breath and forced the door open. It flew open and slammed into the wall. Reyna visibly flinched. She was leaning against the counter and trying to take deep breaths. It wasn't working which made her breathing turn into hyperventilating.

"Reyna, it's okay," Hylla whispered. She grabbed her little sister's arm. In the next moment, Hylla's face was slammed into the bath tub. Nico winced as he heard the sound of a nose shattering.

"Don't touch me!" Reyna yelled. She collapsed against the counter and slowly slid to the ground. Reyna brought her knee to her chest and rested her head against them. She started to cry miserably.

Nico stared for a long moment. He had never seen Reyna like this. She was usually so strong and in control of herself. Nico had to be there for her though.

Nico glanced at Hylla. The queen of the Amazons had both hands to her bloddy nose. It was hard to read her expression, but she didn't look upset.

Reyna's cries brought him back to reality. Nico slowly walked towards her and knelt by her. He went to grab Reyna's arm, but he quickly stopped himself. She didn't want to be touched, so he would respect her wishes.

"Can you hear me?" Nico asked in the calmest voice that he could manage. His own hands were shaking.

"Leave me alone," Reyna cried. Her shoulder were shaking as she cried miserably. It sounded like she was also struggling to catch her breath. Reyna seemed like she was trying to force herself to stop crying, but all it caused was for her to start hyperventilating again.

"I can't leave you alone right now," Nico whispered. "I'm here for you, okay? Hylla is too. Please take slow breaths."

Reyna sounded like she was trying to follow his advice, but it wasn't working. Her breathing became even more panicked. She spoke, "I do not want to hurt you. Please just go away."

"You would never hurt me," Nico said. "Reyna, you know that."

"I killed my father. What makes you different?" Reyna mumbled. Her breathing started to become controlled, but her shoulders were still shaking as she cried. "I don't want to turn on you or Hylla."

"You're not going to," Hylla interrupted. She knelt by Reyna's other side. "Father gave you no choice. You acted instinctively. That is something that you will never do to us."

Reyna slowly looked at them. She wiped her nose and tried to wipe her eyes. When Hylla went to grab her arm, Reyna flinched. Hylla lowered her hand. It wasn't hard to miss the hurt on her face.

"You are not going to hurt your friends," Hylla promised. "Please don't think that."

After a few moment of staring at her older sister, Reyna nodded. She laid her head back, but her breathing became more panicked. Reyna spoke, "What if he came back?"

"What?" Nico asked. He glanced at Hylla confused. There was a look of understanding on her face.

"Father did not come back," Hylla promised. She looked like she wanted to grab Reyna's arm and was barely stopping herself. "I promise you that he didn't."

"You don't know," Reyna hissed. "He could have returned when the Doors of Death were opened. I can't do it again. I can't stand to face him."

"Mother would tell us," Hylla argued. "Nico would be able to tell. Even if he did, we would protect you. Your friends will take care of you, understood? There is no way he would get near you."

"He would find a way," Reyna whispered. Her breathing was calmer. Nico took that as a sign that she was calming down. He brought his hand close to Reyna's arm but didn't grab it. When she looked him in the eyes and gave him a nod, he gently grabbed her arm.

Reyna watched him for a moment before she laid her head against her knees. She spoke, "Hylla, I'm so sorry about attacking you. I didn't mean for it to happen."

"I'm the one who should be apologizing," Hylla said. "I yelled at you and started all of this. I'm sorry."

Reyna nodded slightly. She looked up at them. Hylla wiped some tears from her face. The queen of the Amazons stood and helped Reyna stand.

For a moment, Reyna watched them. She then hugged Hylla tightly and started to cry into her shoulder. Hylla looked surprised by the action, but she returned the hug and rubbed Reyna's back.

Nico watched for a few moments. He then decided that it would be best to leave the two sisters alone. Nico gently squeezed Reyna's shoulder. He rubbed her back for a moment and walked out of the room.

A glance to his left showed Aurum and Argentum waiting by the bathroom door. They seemed to be ready to jump to Reyna's side at a moment's notice. Nico walked into the living room.

He sat down on the couch and stared at the ground. Hopefully, Hylla would be able to calm Reyna down. It still bothered Nico that Reyna had snapped like that.

Nico was upset that he didn't notice how Reyna felt before. He was suppose to be her best friend, but, someone, he missed it. Nico laid his head back against the couch feeling terrible.

Nico closed his eyes and just listened. It took a minute, but Reyna's cries slowly calmed down till there was silence. Nico opened his eyes as he heard footsteps. Hylla met his eyes.

"She fell asleep," Hylla said. She sat by Nico and rubbed her eyes. "I laid her down in bed."

Hylla sighed and grabbed Reyna's laptop. She opened the laptop and glanced through Reyna's book report. Nico glanced at it and saw Reyna only had two pages done.

"She just loves to procrastinate," Hylla muttered. She glanced at Nico. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but Hylla just looked back at the laptop. "Have you ever read this book?"

"What book is it?" Nico asked. Instead of answering, Hylla just tossed him the book. That would have been fine, but the title was in Latin. Nico stared at Hylla. "I can't read Latin."

"I'm sorry, okay," Hylla said. Nico stared at her in surprise. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, but it kills me that she keeps getting hurt. When she is at Camp Jupiter or Camp Half-Blood, I can't be there to help her. That literally kills me."

"It kills me too," Nico said. "I hate that she always gets hurt when I'm around or because of me."

Hylla nodded. She took the book and skimmed through it. Hylla cleared her throat and spoke, "Don't tell anyone I apologized to a boy."

"I won't," Nico promised. "And, I forgive you."

Hylla smirked slightly. She spoke, "For a boy, you're not so bad."

"If I tell anyone you said that, you will kill me," Nico guessed. Hylla's smirk grew, and she nodded.

"Reyna has you trained well," Hylla responded. "Now, you can be quiet while I work on this report. With a little luck, she won't fail."


	21. Probation

Considering she had spent the last week reflecting over her breakdown, Reyna wasn't in the mood for a lecture, especially one from a washed up Lar. It took a deep breath to force her gaze off of the wall in front of her. She forced her eyes to look at the Lar.

The only real indication of Reyna's anger was her clenched fist. Her face was still neutral, but that was taking up all of her willpower. Since her fist were clenched so tightly, she could feel her nails digging into her palms.

"And," the Lar continued. He had been ranting for the past five minutes, but Reyna didn't remember anything that he had said. It was all garbled noise in her ear. Of course, the Lar didn't care. He usually kept away from everyone, unless he could find the opportunity to yell at them. "Is this what happens when you are the only praetor at this camp?"

"No sir," Reyna said through gritted teeth. Her jaw was starting to ache from how clenched it was. At the moment, she was the only praetor at the camper, so she was getting all the blame for her camp's stupidity. She just wished that Frank had picked a different day to go on his date with Hazel.

"Then, why did this happen?" the Lar wondered. He paced back and forth as if it would add dramatic effect. "How did the campers get the supplies to have a paintball fight in the temple of Jupiter? This is the second paintball fight in this camp, is it not?"

"Yes sir," Reyna muttered. She took a deep breath to contain her anger. The Lar's lecture meant nothing to her, but she was scared to see how Lupa would react. A glance to her right showed that Lupa wasn't reacting at all. She was just watching.

"So why does this keep happening?" the Lar demanded. It almost sounded like he was trying to yell himself out of existence. Reyna remained silent. "Are you just going to stand there and not answer me? Are you blind to what is going on at your camp?"

"No sir," Reyna muttered. It was so degrading to have to call the Lar sir. He didn't deserve to be called that. He was just trying to look important in front of Lupa. In fact, Reyna wouldn't be enduring this, if Lupa wasn't there.

Reyna glanced at Lupa again. The goddess had paint covering her forehead from where one of the Romans had hit her. She had originally been there doing surprise inspections. Reyna was ninety percent sure that the Fates were laughing at her right now.

It was hard to find the worst part. Lupa was angry at her. The entire thing would be blamed on Reyna. The Lar would not shut up. Reyna gritted her teeth even more than she had earlier. Her dentist was going to hate her.

Reyna, in the first place, didn't like to get yelled at. It was even worse for some Lar with no authority to do it. The Lar took a deep breath again. His voice, thank the gods, was starting to go out. He cleared his throat.

"Information had to be passed from camper to camper," the Lar continued. "Since this crime involved all five cohorts, it seems impossible that you did not catch wind of it. How can you call yourself a praetor?"

"Enough," Lupa growled. She took a step forward and looked Reyna in the eyes. "As of right now, you are on probation. I will personally review everything that has happened here while you have been in charge. Until I come to a decision, I want you on vacation."

Those words hurt. Reyna opened her mouth, but Lupa growled. Reyna finally just looked down at the ground and nodded. She spoke, "Yes ma'am."

"Go," Lupa growled. Reyna turned and walked out of the Senators building. She saw that most of the campers had gathered to watch, but she didn't meet their eyes. Reyna shoved past them and walked towards her house.

Being praetor was all she cared about. She was terrified of losing the position. Reyna tried to stop the panic forming in her chest. It became hard to breath, but she forced her mind to focus on something else. Her thoughts turned to Nico.

If there was a bright side, it was that she could spend time with Nico, but it was a very small bright side. They had not spoken since Reyna's breakdown. She knew that Nico didn't judge her, but it was hard to be that vulnerable around anyone.

Reyna made it to her house and stepped inside. Aurum and Argentum rushed to her side. Reyna spoke, "Stop."

Aurum and Argentum both stopped in their tracks. They sat down and waited patiently for orders. Reyna raised her fist and turned towards the nearest wall. It took her a moment to lower her fist and press her head against the wall.

Her life seemed to be spiraling out of control, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Reyna took a deep breath and walked towards her room. She snapped her fingers, and her dogs were behind her a moment later.

Reyna stepped into her room and threw clothes into a duffel bag. When that was done, she grabbed a few daggers and another sword. She hoped that she could participate in capture the flag. That would be a good distraction.

"Hey Reyna," a voice greeted. Reyna glanced at the Iris message near her. Nico's face took up most of the Iris message, but it was clear that he was sitting on his bed. As their eyes met, Nico grinned. "How are you doing?"

"Probation," Reyna muttered. She sat on her bed. "Lupa made me go on vacation, and I just spent the last ten minutes being yelled at. So, I am doing terrible."

The Iris message ended a moment later. Reyna closed her eyes and silently counted to ten. When she finished counting, she opened her eyes. Nico was stumbling out of the shadows. Reyna easily caught him.

"You're getting slower," Reyna commented. She sat Nico down but didn't meet his eyes. "It usually takes you eight seconds."

"I'm not awake yet," Nico said with a shrug. He watched her for a long time. "Want to talk about it?"

"About what?" Reyna muttered. She sat near Nico and brought her knees to her chest. Reyna wrapped her arms around her knees and sighed tiredly. "I feel like my life is spiraling out of control, and there is nothing that I can do to stop it."

Nico didn't respond. He just sat there and waited for her to speak. After a minute of silence, Reyna laid back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She spoke, "Ever since I have been praetor, it seems like everything bad has happened. I want people to reflect back on me and think of how much of an amazing praetor I was."

"I don't want everyone to revere me. I just want them to know that I have done everything to protect this camp. I would lay my life down for everyone here, but that gets overshadowed by all of these things that are happening," Reyna muttered.

"Maybe, I do need a break," Reyna continued. She rubbed her face. "It might be nice to have the weight of the camp off my shoulders, but what if Lupa removes me from being praetor? I can't handle that."

"Reyna, that is not going to happen," Nico promised. "You are the best praetor that Camp Jupiter has ever had."

"You need me for the capture the flag," Reyna assumed. Nico shrugged. Reyna smiled and took a deep breath. "Thank you. Want to help me finish packing?"

"Of course," Nico answered. He rolled off of the bed and laid on the ground. Nico dug under the bed and pulled out a bow and arrow. "Is this all of your weapon needs?"

"I can probably just borrow anything I'm missing," Reyna commented. She walked towards her bathroom and started to shoved items off of her sink and into her hand. Then, it was a simple matter of carrying the items back to her duffel bag.

"How hard are you going to train?" Nico wondered. Reyna looked at him and smirked. "My guess is very hard."

"It will be nice to get back some of my lost muscle," Reyna commented. Nico stared at her and opened his mouth. "What? I still have my six pack, but my biceps are a little flabby."

"You are literally rock solid," Nico commented. He even sounded a little jealous. Reyna grinned and finished packing her duffel bag. She then grabbed the duffel bag and slipped it over her shoulder.

Reyna heard her dogs rush into the room. They could sense that her mood had shifted, and they were excited to see Nico. The son of Hades had no chance as the two dogs slammed into him and knocked him to the ground.

"Help," Nico pleaded. Aurum and Argentum were busy licking his face. Reyna smiled and casually stretched. She studied the scene in front of her.

"Off," Reyna said, but there was no authority to her words. She was enjoying watching Nico struggle. After thirty more seconds, Reyna pulled her dogs off of Nico. "Should I bring these two with me?"

Nico used his shirt to wipe his face. He spoke, "Yes. I think it will do them some good. They can play with Hades."

"Has your dad killed you for naming your hellhound after him?" Reyna asked. She looked at her dogs. "You two are going to meet me at Camp Half-Blood. Be gentle with the hellhound."

Her dogs sat down and stared up at her. Reyna turned the lights off, and she held her hand out for Nico. He gently grabbed it. Before Reyna could blink, they were shadow traveling.

Shadow traveling didn't really effect Reyna, so she simply blinked till her eyes were adjusted to the dark. Reyna took a step forward and tripped right over something. She managed to roll through the fall and turn around.

"Show off," Nico commented. He picked up his hellhound and smiled. Hades licked his face before yapping. "I think Hades has to go the bathroom."

The sheer ridiculousness of the sentence made Reyna grin. She spoke, "I should probably tell Chiron that I just appeared at his camp unannounced, shouldn't I?"

"I'll go with you," Nico replied. Reyna smiled and dropped her duffel bag on Nico's bed. As she grabbed the cabin door, her hand gripped the door in anger. "You okay?"

"Just thinking about capture the flag," Reyna replied. She opened the door and glared a hole in the ground. It was getting harder to pretend her anger wasn't there. "After I talk to Chiron, I'm going to spar."

"Reyna, are you sure that nothing is wrong with you?" Nico questioned. He stepped out of the cabin but watched her closely. Hades struggled in his arms.

"If there was something wrong, I would tell you, wouldn't I?" Reyna asked. Nico watched her for a moment before nodding. Reyna closed the cabin door. "I'll meet up with you, once I'm doing talking to Chiron."

"If you don't kill me, I'll spar," Nico volunteered. Reyna grinned and walked towards the Big House. She kept her eyes ahead and tried to hide her anger. It was something that Nico didn't need to be burdened with. He already dealt with her breakdown, and he shouldn't have to deal with anything else.


End file.
